Ten years after their involvement as young children in the Multicenter Bronchiectasis Study, Indigenous adolescents are still symptomatic and missing school due to acute lower respiratory infections (ALRI).
Preliminary data presented at the TSANZSRS meeting in Adelaide reinforces the importance of reducing early risk factors for chronic suppurative lung disease in children, such as prematurity and household overcrowding.
Dr Gabrielle McCallum, a postdoctoral fellow at the Menzies School of Health Research, told the conference about 67% of the original cohort of children received clinical reviews between 2015 and 2017.
“These children haven’t been involved in a study since 2010. So with a five year gap, we weren’t quite sure what we were going to find to be honest.”
Fortunately there had been no deaths and none of the children had deteriorated clinically.
“We can say that in their adolescent years, most were stable or had improved but they were still experiencing respiratory symptoms and they were having at least one acute lower respiratory infection annually.”