ABSTRACT
Each year in France, 42,000 children receive spa therapy, which is covered by the national health care insurance system. In over three cases out of four, the treatment is ordered by the child's physician for respiratory tract disease which fails to respond adequately to conventional therapy. Asthma, recurrent bronchitis, and spasmodic cough are the main indications in pneumo-allergology; seromucous otitis media, naso-sinusitis and refractory pharyngitis are the most common pediatric ENT diseases treated in spa centers. The two main types of mineral water used are sulfur-rich waters in patients with prominent infection and chloride and bicarbonate-rich waters when allergy is the main problem. Experimental studies point to the fact that these waters have immunomodulating effects. However, other therapeutic interventions in spa centers, including rehabilitation and health education, also play a role. Evaluations of spa therapy for respiratory tract diseases carried out by government agencies have demonstrated decreases in school absenteeism and above all in the use of drugs in treated patients. The future of pediatric spa therapy will likely depend on the development of preventive interventions in spa centers.
Subject(s)
Health Resorts , Otorhinolaryngologic Diseases/therapy , Respiratory Hypersensitivity/therapy , Asthma/therapy , Bronchitis/therapy , Child , Child, Preschool , Female , Humans , Hydrotherapy , Male , Mineral WatersABSTRACT
99 children, aged 6 to 14, received health education and were compared to 93 controls, living in another "children house" at the same resort. The two groups were similar, and completely separated. All children had respiratory and cutaneous infections or allergies, none of them being disabled. The health education consisted in five sessions held over three weeks. Topics were the excesses of what people put into their glasses, ash-trays, plates and medicine chests. The teaching method was mainly based on creative games. Evaluations were presented as games, with colored blocks. The answers given to ten questions, before the educational sessions, were similar in both groups. The final answers did not show any progress in the control group, whereas the rate of correct answers increased by 30% in the educated group. Differences were highly significant, in all age groups. Progresses concerned especially the excesses of sugar, tobacco and meat. The educational needs seemed different according to age, with the main excesses being sugar and other food in children under ten, and tobacco and alcoholic drinks in older children. Spa resorts, and La Bourboule in particular, are suitable for brief controlled health education actions.
