What is it about?
Exercise Induced Laryngeal Obstruction (EILO) causes difficulty breathing in many teenagers. This study examined how EILO influences quality of life in teens. Teens reported that identifying EILO (getting a diagnosis) was difficult and took an average of 10.5 months. Teens reported that EILO hurt athletic performance because they were forced to pace themselves or stop participating. EILO also negatively affected academics and social life. Patients also reported that EILO caused feelings of fear, frustration, dread, guilt, and embarrassment. Patients stated that therapy with a speech-language pathologist (SLP) improved symptoms, but was more difficult to complete than expected.
Featured Image
Photo by Nodir Khalilov on Unsplash
Why is it important?
These findings show that EILO affects teenagers in a variety of ways. As such, it is important that EILO be diagnosed quickly - before symptoms can get worse. It is important that clinicians understand that EILO can affect social, academic, and emotional function. Therapy with an SLP helps EILO symptoms, but more work is needed to see how this treatment can be improved.
Perspectives
Understanding the experiences of teens with EILO can help us improve therapy. Data from this study have helped us refine our clinical practice, and we hope this article will be useful for others as well.
Robert Brinton Fujiki
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Effects of Exercise-Induced Laryngeal Obstruction in Adolescents: A Qualitative Study, American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology, May 2024, American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA),
DOI: 10.1044/2024_ajslp-23-00296.
You can read the full text:
Contributors
The following have contributed to this page
