A study of more than 1,500 children at Mercy Children’s Hospital in Toledo found that children with asthma may benefit from testing for sensitivity to peanuts.

The study, conducted by Dr. Robert Cohn on 1,517 children who were treated for respiratory problems, was presented Sunday at the American Thoracic Society’s international conference in Denver.

The children had a confirmed diagnosis of asthma, but only 11 percent knew they had a peanut allergy.

Researchers found that 665 of the children studied had undergone blood tests for peanut allergy, and 22 percent of those children tested positive for peanut sensitivity.

Shortness of breath, wheezing, and coughing are common symptoms in both conditions. Peanut allergies can severely affect the health of children with asthma.

In a study published in 2010 in the Journal of Pediatrics, researchers found the hospitalization rate of children with asthma and peanut allergies was twice as high as the rate of children with asthma who did not have peanut allergies.

Dr. Cohn, who left Mercy Children’s Hospital in August, is medical director of pulmonary medicine at Dayton’s Children’s Hospital.

Dr. Cohn was the lead author of the study. Dr. Anas Al-Yazji, a pediatrician at the University of Toledo Medical Center, was co-author.

The Mercy study found that many children who have asthma did not know they had a sensitivity to peanuts.

“Many of the respiratory symptoms of peanut allergy can mirror those of an asthma attack, and vice versa,” Dr. Cohn said in a statement. “This study aimed to evaluate the proportion of asthmatic children who also demonstrated a sensitivity to peanuts.”

Another reason children with asthma should be tested for peanut allergies is that certain asthma medications should be avoided in children with peanut allergies, the researchers said.

Parents may not suspect their child has a peanut allergy because many of the allergy’s symptoms — such as shortness of breath, wheezing, and coughing — may mirror those of an asthma attack, Dr. Cohn said.

Dr. Cohn said he is not sure about what mechanism might underlie a connection between asthma and peanut allergies. More research is needed to investigate this, he said.

Scientists who carried out a study in the United States said symptoms such as shortness of breath, wheezing, and coughing are seen in both conditions.

Of the 1,517 children from the pediatric respiratory clinic at Mercy Children’s Hospital, one in 10 tested positive to peanut sensitivity.

However, 53 percent of these children and their families were not aware and did not suspect there was any sensitivity to peanuts.

They found the prevalence of known peanut allergy was similar across age groups.

“This study demonstrates children with asthma might benefit from a test for peanut sensitivity, especially when control of wheezing and coughing is difficult to achieve,” Dr. Cohn said.

“If a physician is having this problem, or if a parent notices it in his or her asthmatic child, they should consider testing, even if they believe their child is not sensitive to peanuts.”

He added that further research should be carried out into the connection.

Dr. Cohn served on Dayton Children’s staff from 1988 to 1997 as the associate director of pulmonary medicine, attending critical-care physician, and medical director of respiratory care.

He returned to Dayton Children’s after serving as an attending physician at Mercy Children’s Hospital in Toledo, as well as director of pediatric resident research and a clinical professor of pediatrics at the University of Toledo college of medicine, the former Medical College of Ohio.

First Published May 18, 2015, 4:00 a.m.