 | The 131st Annual Meeting (November 15-19, 2003) of APHA |
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| The 131st Annual Meeting (November 15-19, 2003) of APHA |
Nazerah Shaikh, MPH, Julie Von Behren, MPH, and Rick Kreutzer, MD. Environmental Health Investigations Branch, California Department of Health Services, 1515 Clay Street, Suite 1700, Oakland, CA 94612, 510-622-4475, nshaikh@dhs.ca.gov
BACKGROUND: The causes of childhood asthma are largely unexplained. However, recent studies have suggested that adolescent asthma may have a fetal origin. In order to investigate this hypothesis we examined the association between low birthweight, preterm delivery and the subsequent development of asthma.
METHODS: We assessed the relation between low birthweight, preterm delivery and asthma in a cohort of 1,877 adolescents born between March 1960 and April 1963 in the San Francisco Bay Area. The adolescents and their mothers had been followed from birth onward by means of their Kaiser Foundation Health Plan and records of visits to the Child Health and Development Study offices. Univariate and multivariate analyses were performed using generalized estimating equations with repeated measures (PROC GENMOD, SAS version 8).
RESULTS: The prevalence of asthma among the adolescents, as reported by the mother, was 10.7%. Crude associations with adolescent asthma included birthweight below 2500 g [relative risk estimate = 1.73, 95% confidence interval = 1.02-2.92]; gestational age below 37 weeks [1.32, 0.84-2.09]; and using birthweight-gestational age combined, preterm-low birthweight infants had the highest risk of developing asthma [1.91, 1.00-3.66]. In a full regression model, the association between low birthweight and prematurity disappeared. However, parental history of asthma [3.08, 2.34-4.05], non-White race [1.53, 1.15-2.03], and male sex [1.38, 1.04-1.82], were strong predictors of asthma, while maternal ethnic origin (born outside the US) [0.43, 0.21-0.86] had a protective effect.
CONCLUSION: In this cohort, parental history of asthma, race, sex, and maternal ethnic origin were better predictors of adolescent asthma than birthweight and gestational age.
Learning Objectives:
Keywords: Asthma, Pregnancy Outcomes
Presenting author's disclosure statement:
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.