FACTORS IN CHILDHOOD AS PREDICTORS OF ASTHMA IN ADULT LIFE

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: To determine which factors measured in childhood predict asthma in adult life. DESIGN: Prospective study over 25 years of a birth cohort initially studied at the age of 7. SETTING: Tasmania, Australia. SUBJECTS: 1494 men and women surveyed in 1991-3 when aged 29 to 32 (75% of a random stratified sample from the 1968 Tasmanian asthma survey of children born in 1961 and at school in Tasmania). MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Self reported asthma or wheezy breathing in the previous 12 months (current asthma). RESULTS: Of the subjects with asthma or wheezy breathing by the age of 7, as reported by their parents 25.6% (190/741) reported current asthma as an adult compared with 10.8% (81/753) of..