Original ArticleThe Burden of Childhood Asthma and Late Preterm and Early Term Births
Section snippets
Methods
The study population was derived from a clinical birth database comprising a total population of 45 030 infants born after 22 completed weeks of gestation at Kuopio University Hospital between 1989 and 2008 (Table I). Stillbirths (n = 193), neonatal deaths (n = 177), and cases with missing data (n = 487) were excluded. Data on 44 173 women with live-born infants were linked with data from the register for reimbursement at the Social Insurance Institution of Finland for asthma medication for
Results
Of the 44 173 live-born children, 2661 (6.0%) had asthma during childhood (Table I). The mean age of onset of asthma was 4.2 years, and more than 80% of the children with asthma were aged >7 years. Table I shows that compared with controls, children with asthma were more frequently males and were born more frequently by cesarean delivery, at a lower gestational age, with lower Apgar scores, and to married couples vs controls. Mothers of children with asthma smoked more during pregnancy and had
Discussion
The overall prevalence of childhood asthma in our study cohort was 6%, which corresponds closely to the expected rate in Finland.14 We report 3 main finding. First, the risk of asthma was 3.9-fold higher in children born at <32 weeks gestation compared with controls, and it remained high in those born at up to 38 weeks gestation. Second, delivery after 41 weeks seemed to protect offspring from asthma. Third, the burden of asthma in offspring was associated mainly with deliveries at 37-38 weeks
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Supported by The Pohjois-Savo Hospital District EVO-funding (Awarded Special State Subsidy) for health science research. The authors declare no conflicts of interest.
Registered with Kuopio University Hospital register (TUTKI): 5302448.