According to a recent wide-ranging study conducted by Robert C. Strunk, MD, the Donald Strominger Professor of Pediatrics at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, children who are exposed to steroid drugs for asthma treatment tend to have shorter height in future as compared to other similar age group children, who do not use the drugs.

For conducting this study, around 1,000 children between the age group of 5-12 were reviewed. All of them were treated for mild to moderate asthma during their childhood days. They were a part of the Childhood Asthma Management Program (CAMP) clinical trial. For more than four years, they were given the treatment.

In total, around eight centers were included for the medical trial; Washington University School of Medicine was one of it. For observing effects of different medications, the kids were divided into three groups. First group was given budesonide, which is an inhaled corticosteroid medication, for two times a day. The second group received nedocromil, an inhaled non-steroid medication; and a placebo was given to the third group.

For treating asthma symptoms, all children were given oral corticosteroids and for relieving them immediately from some of the acute asthma signs, albuterol, which is a fast-acting drug; was introduced. A major height difference was noticed in these children.