A Cincinnati Study Links Housing to Childhood Asthma

A Cincinnati study is examining the tight link between housing conditions and childhood asthma, investigating whether remedying problems like mold, pests, and poor ventilation can function as a form of medicine. The research reframes a housing issue as a health one.

Pediatric asthma sends children to emergency rooms and keeps them out of school, and its triggers frequently sit in the home. Treating the child's symptoms while ignoring the environment that provokes them, researchers argue, is a cycle that repeats.

The study's implication is that the most effective prescription might sometimes be a home repair. Proving that rigorously — and figuring out who pays for it — is the harder work ahead.