New Asthma Research from Waseda University Discussed (A Quasi-Experimental Study of the Effects of Pre-Kindergarten Education on Pediatric Asthma): Lung Diseases and Conditions – Asthma

2021 OCT 27 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Insurance Daily News -- Investigators discuss new findings in asthma. According to news reporting originating from Tokyo, Japan, by NewsRx correspondents, research stated, “Ensuring access to pre-kindergarten (Pre-K) education remains a pressing policy issue in the United States. Prior research has shown the positive effects that Pre-K has on children’s cognitive development.”

Our news journalists obtained a quote from the research from Waseda University: “However, studies on its effects on children’s health outcomes are scarce. This study aimed to investigate the effects of the Pre-K program on pediatric asthma. Children’s individual data from existing research conducted in North Carolina were linked with state Medicaid claims data from 2011-2017. There were 51,408 observations (person-month unit) of 279 children enrolled in Pre-K and 333 unenrolled children. Asthma was identified using the ICD 9/10 codes. A difference-in-differences model was adopted using a panel analysis with three time periods: before, during, and after Pre-K. The explanatory variables were interaction terms between Pre-K enrollment and (a) before vs. during period and (b) during vs. after period. The results indicated that children enrolled in Pre-K had a greater risk of asthma diagnosis during Pre-K (* * b* * = 0.0145, * * p* * = 0.058).”

According to the news reporters, the research concluded: “Conversely, in the post-intervention period, the enrolled children had a lower of receiving an asthma diagnosis (* * b* * = -0.0216, * * p* * = 0.002). These findings indicate that Pre-K may increase the use of asthma-related health services in the short term and decrease the service use after participants leave the program.”

For more information on this research see: A Quasi-Experimental Study of the Effects of Pre-Kindergarten Education on Pediatric Asthma. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 2021,18(10461):10461. (International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health - http://www.mdpi.com/journal/ijerph). The publisher for International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health is MDPI AG.

A free version of this journal article is available at https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph181910461.

Our news editors report that additional information may be obtained by contacting Rie Masuda, Faculty of Political Science and Economics, Waseda University, Shinjuku, Tokyo 169-8050, Japan. Additional authors for this research include Paul Lanier, Ellen Peisner-Feinberg, Hideki Hashimoto.

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