Exercise in Children with Bronchial Asthma: A Non-Pharmacological Adjunct to Bronchial Asthma Management

Exercise in a child with bronchial asthma is a significant subject of interest to the child, physician and parents. Most children with asthma would like to engage in sports. However, fear, past experiences of physical restrictions from the disease, perception of family members, unfavourable institutional policies, the reluctance of school teachers to include children with bronchial asthma in sports and healthcare workers' advice that discourages physical exercise are barriers to vigorous physical activities in children with bronchial asthma. This leads to a sedentary lifestyle, which decreases their quality of life and increases obesity, thus worsening their asthma symptoms. Bronchial asthma is a chronic inflammatory airway disease leading to variable airway obstruction and hyperresponsiveness. Exercise can trigger or aggravate bronchial asthma symptoms via physical and chemical mechanisms. Exercise-induced bronchoconstriction can also occur in children who have bronchial asthma. Exercise, however, reduces the severity of exercise-induced bronchial asthma, reduces airway inflammation and improves pulmonary function in patients with asthma. Regular physical activity improves bronchial asthma control and quality of life in patients with asthma; it also reduces the amount of medication required to control the disease. As a result of this, regular exercise is recommended as a non-pharmacological adjunct to the management of bronchial asthma. Exercises that do not require prolonged rapid breathing, like playing volleyball, badminton, or aerobics exercises, are least likely to cause exercise-induced bronchoconstriction. For a child with bronchial asthma to benefit from the effects of regular exercise, the choice of exercise, reasonable asthma control, and good prevention and management of exercise-induced bronchoconstriction are essential.