Remote monitoring in preschool wheeze
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Remote monitoring to predict and prevent asthma attacks in preschool children
IRAS ID
307300
Contact name
Sejal Saglani
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Imperial College London
Clinicaltrials.gov Identifier
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 11 months, 29 days
Research summary
Background: Preschool children aged between 1 and 5 years are the age-group affected most by attacks of asthma and wheezing during childhood. Preschool aged children account for 75% of all childhood hospital admissions for acute asthma. This admission rate has remained unchanged for over 15 years. The number of preschool children attending GPs for acute wheezing is also increasing, and there is a significant impact on parent/caregiver time off work and both parental and their child's quality of life. Although numerous technologies have been developed that allow school-age children and adults with asthma to monitor their symptoms and to predict attacks, none to date have focussed on predicting and preventing wheeze attacks in preschool children. Frequent and repeated preschool wheezing attacks are known to have an impact on life-long lung health.
Our aim is to generate a bespoke home remote monitoring system for preschool children with wheezing which will allow detection of increased symptoms and will predict an impending wheezing attack. We will develop an app to be used by parents/caregivers that allows recording of wheeze symptoms, and any medication used for wheeze in the previous 24 hours, relate the child's symptoms to how well their lungs are working (lung function) using wearable equipment that monitors during sleep and use the data from the app and lung function to develop a personalised plan for each child that alerts parents/caregivers to the onset of a wheezing attack and seek healthcare advice.
Methods: Children aged 1-5 years attending the emergency department with a wheezing attack will be recruited and undertake monitoring for 2 weeks (St Mary’s Hospital, London), and those with severe wheezing having specialist tests will be recruited and undertake monitoring for 4 months (Royal Brompton Hospital, London).
Funder: Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, UKREC name
North of Scotland Research Ethics Committee 1
REC reference
22/NS/0055
Date of REC Opinion
23 May 2022
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion