Last updated on 09/10/2025

 

Critical funding from Asthma Australia is powering research that aims to change the trajectory of childhood asthma.

Australian researchers have published promising new findings in the journal Thorax, highlighting the potential of a novel home monitoring strategy to transform asthma care in children. This innovative approach outlines not only how well controlled a child’s asthma is but can also detect changes in airway function days before a severe asthma attack occurs, offering a critical window for early intervention. By predicting asthma attacks in advance, the strategy could help prevent hospitalisations and improve outcomes for children with asthma—an urgently needed advancement
in paediatric respiratory care.

Led by respiratory paediatrician Prof. Paul Robinson at The University of Queensland, the study followed 55 school-aged children, 13 healthy and 42 with asthma, over a period of 3 to 4 months. Participants performed daily home-based oscillometry to monitor their lung function.

This technology, which is simple to use and requires only normal breathing into a handheld device, showed exciting ability to detect poorly controlled asthma and those at greater risk of asthma attacks. These are encouraging signs that this strategy may give families a potential early warning signal to respond to before asthma attacks occur and symptoms become life-threatening.

This is the first study of its kind to show that oscillometry can be a useful home-based monitoring tool in children, who are particularly vulnerable due to the difficulty in detecting when asthma is poorly controlled and picking up the early signs of breathing deterioration.

Of the children who participated in the study, 29 were from regional areas and 26 from urban settings. For children in regional communities, where access to emergency hospital care can be restricted due to distance, this technology enables timely intervention and remote specialist monitoring. Prof. Robinson said the study was sparked by a desire to better detect when asthma control is slipping, something that is difficult to pick up in routine care.

“A lot of kids who come into hospital with a severe asthma attack have had no clear early warning signs that things are about to get worse. We wanted to see if there was a way to track asthma control more objectively and consistently at home,” said Prof. Robinson.

The technology works by superimposing an oscillating pressure signal over the child’s natural breathing to measure what’s happening within the lungs. Think of sonar and its use of sound waves to tell what is going on below the surface of the ocean. Unlike spirometry or peak flow, oscillometry is effort-independent, easy to perform and able to detect changes in smaller airways, which are often the site of early inflammation and narrowing in asthma.

The research was funded in full by Asthma Australia. Prof. John Blakey, Medical Director of Asthma Australia, said the study is an example of how targeted investment can deliver practical innovations to improve lives.

“We are proud to have funded this world-leading research. It’s a prime example of how targeted investment can drive disruptive innovation in asthma care. By supporting research like this, we’re helping to build a future where severe asthma attacks are fewer, harm is prevented, and kids can become healthy adults,” Prof. Blakey said.

Prof. Robinson said he was drawn to asthma as a research area due to the volume of preventable harm he was seeing in children.

“Asthma is the most common chronic condition in childhood and yet we continue to see poor asthma control and tragic outcomes. We continue to see children have ongoing asthma attacks and tragically die from asthma. That’s why I’ve focused my work here. There’s so much potential to make things better,” he said.

“Our next stage is a larger study of 200 children across city and rural settings to show how many asthma attacks we can prevent using this approach. By improving asthma control, we aim to transform quality of life for families and demonstrate the real benefits this approach can deliver — not just in Australia, but globally.”

Prof. Robinson said the field of oscillometry is growing internationally but remains under-utilised in paediatric asthma care.

“The more we can understand about when and why asthma worsens, the better and more quickly we can treat it and prevent attacks before they happen. That’s the goal.”

The study was published in Thorax [https://thorax.bmj.com/content/early/2025/06/24/thorax-2024-222744].

Asthma in Australian Children – The True Impact

  • Asthma remains a major health issue for Australian children:
    • Approximately 386,000 children under 15 (8.2 per cent) have asthma.
    • Asthma was the leading cause of disease burden for children aged 1-14 in 2023.
    • 13,500 children under 15 were hospitalised for asthma in 2022-23.
    • 43 per cent of all asthma hospitalisations were in children under 15 in 2022-23.
    • Children under 15 are about three times more likely to be hospitalised for asthma
      than people aged 15 and over.
    • Only 67 per cent of children had an Asthma Action Plan in 2022.

 

ENDS
For more information:
Contact Trinity Frederick, 0413 99 22 82

ABOUT
Asthma Australia is the nation’s peak body representing more nearly 2.8million Australians living with asthma. We’ve been here since 1962 and even though a lot has changed since then, asthma
continues to claim a life each day and is the number one health condition burdening Aussie children. Asthma is an inflammatory condition of the airways, restricting airflow and can be fatal. There is no cure, but most people with asthma can experience good control.