TY - JOUR T1 - High-altitude alpine therapy and lung function in asthma: systematic review and meta-analysis JF - ERJ Open Research JO - erjor DO - 10.1183/23120541.00097-2015 VL - 2 IS - 2 SP - 00097-2015 AU - Denis Vinnikov AU - Abdullah Khafagy AU - Paul D. Blanc AU - Nurlan Brimkulov AU - Craig Steinmaus Y1 - 2016/04/01 UR - http://openres.ersjournals.com/content/2/2/00097-2015.abstract N2 - We used meta-analysis to measure the effect of high-altitude climate therapy (HACT) on lung function outcomes in asthma, and systematically searched PubMed, Embase and www.elibrary.ru for publications appearing from 1970 to mid-2015. We included studies carried out with children or adults with an exposure of up to 12 weeks at an altitude of ≥1500 m above sea level. Changes in forced expiratory volume in 1 s (FEV1), FEV1/vital capacity ratio or peak expiratory flow rate as the HACT intervention outcomes were analysed. We included data for 907 participants (age range 4–58 years) from 21 studies, altogether including 28 substrata based on asthma type or severity. Only three of 21 included studies had high quality, whereas 93% of substudies reported lung function improvement with an overall pooled standardised mean difference (SMD) of 0.53 (95% CI 0.43–0.62). The measured effect of HACT was greater in adults (SMD 0.75, 95% CI 0.63–0.88, n=14) than in children (SMD 0.24, 95% CI 0.09–0.38, n=14). Studies at altitude >2000 m above sea level yielded the same effect as those at lower altitude. Based on a cut-point of a 0.50 change in SMD to define a meaningful clinical difference, HACT appears to have efficacy as an intervention. This extent of benefit appears to be limited to adults with asthma.High-altitude alpine therapy may be an effective intervention to improve lung function in patients with asthma http://ow.ly/u3i23008vU5 ER -