My Asthma

Today, the New York Times Freakonomics blog/column pointed out that asthmatic children of single mothers fare significantly worse than their asthmatic counterparts in two-parent families. They visit the doctor less, they get prescriptions filled less, and here's a quote from the study the article quoted: "Children from single-mother families had more health difficulties from asthma than children with two parents, and children living with two or more other children were more likely to have an asthma attack in the past 12 months than children living with no other children."

OK, so busy parents take worse care of their kids. But here's something interesting: today the BBC reported that exposure to spray-based cleaning supplies increases your chances of having asthma and makes asthma worse. Things like glass cleaner, air-freshening spray, and furniture cleaners are the biggest culprits.

And then I thought, the Freakonomics article mentioned that kids in single-parents families fare worse than kids in two-parent families, but as far as asthma goes, it's only been shown that kids in single-MOTHER families do worse. Now, the Freakonomics guys are known for pointing out correlations and possible causes of phenomena that a normal investigator might not think of, but I'm going to one up them:

Maybe asthmatic children of single mothers do worse because their mothers ask them to clean. Think about it. I'm going to use stereotypes here, but they're mostly true in this case, so bear with me. In a two-parent household, labor is divided up, and usually the woman does more of the cleaning. But she has the time, because the man is doing other things, like paying bills, going to work, grilling, scratching himself, and playing sports with the kids (whatever). Point being, there's less of an impetus for a parent to ask a child for help with the cleaning.

In a single-mother family, however, mommy needs a little help, so she gives the little squirt a squirt bottle and cleaning becomes a family activity (also a way to keep an eye on the young one while she cleans). So why does this effect not persist in single-father families? Easy. Because single men don't clean!

Q.E.D.

Stephen Dubner (the Freakonomics columnist) can put THAT in his cake hole and pipe it.