Asthma, Corticosteroids, and Growth

Abstract
The studies by the Childhood Asthma Management Program Research Group1 and by Agertoft and Pedersen2 (Oct. 12 issue) suggest that the magnitude of the growth effect observed during the first year of therapy with inhaled corticosteroids in children with asthma tends not to be sustained during subsequent years. However, neither study was adequately designed or had sufficient power to assess the impact of inhaled corticosteroids on final adult height. Moreover, reporting height data as means ±SD precludes the identification of more seriously affected children with outlier values.