Prevalence and co-occurrence of asthma and allergic manifestations in preschool children

• Background: It has been claimed that preschool children may embark on ‘the atopic march’, which means that atopic manifestations show up one after another in a certain order. The aim of this study was to make an in-depth analysis of the co-occurrence of asthma and atopic manifestations. Methods: Parents of 5886 children 1-6 years of age, sampled from day-care centres in 62 municipalities all over Sweden, responded to a postal questionnaire regarding symptoms indicating prevalent asthma, allergic rhinitis, eczema, food allergy, furred pet and pollen allergy and other data in their children. Age specific prevalence of asthma, rhinitis, eczema, and food allergy was computed, adjusted for municipality population size. Results: The overall prevalence of asthma was 8.9%, of eczema 21.7%, of rhinitis 8.1%, and of food allergy 6.6%. There was a highly significant co-occurrence between all asthma-atopic manifestations. Presence of pet allergy was the manifestation showing the closest co-occurrence with presence of asthma, presence of pollen allergy with presence of rhinitis, and presence of food allergy with presence of eczema. Assessed from plots of age specific prevalence of asthma, rhinitis, eczema and food allergy the prevalence of all manifestations increased from one to three years of age and then decreased, except for rhinitis where the prevalence increased until six years of age. There was no evidence of a rank order of asthma and allergy manifestation onset. Conclusions: There was close co-occurrence between all asthma-atopic manifestations but no evidence of a rank order of onsets.

Ämnesord

MEDICIN OCH HÄLSOVETENSKAP  -- Klinisk medicin -- Allmänmedicin (hsv//swe)

MEDICAL AND HEALTH SCIENCES  -- Clinical Medicine -- General Practice (hsv//eng)

Nyckelord

asthma

rhinitis

eczema

food allergy

epidemiology

Family medicine

Allmänmedicin

Allmänmedicin

Family Medicine

Publikations- och innehållstyp

vet (ämneskategori)

ovr (ämneskategori)