Children’s Asthma Prevention Study – PAPA

What is asthma?

Asthma is an illness that makes it difficult to breathe. It might make your child cough or wheeze. Asthma happens because the tubes in the lungs swell, become tight and get thick liquid in them. Sometimes children with asthma need to go to hospital or may not be well enough to go to school.

For more information you can look at the Asthma + Lung UK or NHS website.

Asthma + Lung UK

NHS

Why are we doing this study?

Over the past 30 years, asthma and allergies have become more common and affect many people, including children. Asthma can make people very sick and, in some cases, can be life-threatening. This has caused health problems and made things harder for families and communities around the world.

Asthma is the most common long-term illness in children, and we need to find better ways to help prevent it.

Allergen Immunotherapy (AIT) is:

• A treatment used for allergies, like asthma and hay fever.
• It helps the body react differently to things that cause allergies
• it can help for a long time after stopping treatment
• it works by slowly giving the body small amounts of something that causes the allergy, which helps the immune system stop overreacting to it.

One big reason children get asthma is because of tiny bugs called house dust mites that live in dust. We think that giving children who are at risk for asthma small amounts of house dust mites can help their bodies get used to them and lower the chances of developing asthma.

What does PAPA involve?

We are inviting 434 children up to 12 months from all over the UK to take part.

An icon of a baby or small child, which is the target group of this study

Children between the ages of 5 – 12 months

An icon of a hospital building, indicating medical services and care

12 NHS hospitals across the UK

An icon of a clipboard displaying checklists with a pencil resting on top, indicating tasks to be completed

4 in-person and 16 virtual visits

(Video or phone call)

Calendar and clock icons, symbolising time management and scheduling

3 years of participation

To find out more about the study and what participating means, please read our information sheets: PIS Stage 1 & PIS Stage 2