ABSTRACT
Objective To investigate the long-term outcome of children with recurrent wheeze and to determine the effectiveness of inhaled hormone therapy. Methods One thousand and thirty-five children with recurrent wheezing were followed up for more than 4 years and the data were retrospectively evaluated. Results Of 1035 cases, 751 (72.56%) patients outgrew their wheeze during the follow-up period, whereas the other 284 (27.44%) patients had recurrence wheeze during the last two years. The age of wheezing onset was<3 years in 542 (52.37%) cases, from 3 to 7 years in 386 (37.29%) cases, and from 7 to 12 years in 107 (10.34%) cases. There was significant difference in clinical control rate among groups with different wheezing ages onset (χ2=45.27, P<0.001). Children with wheezing age onset from 7 to 12 years had the lowest clinical control rate. Among 1035 wheeze children, 343 (79.95%) children in 429 cases who received inhaled hormone therapy for more than one year outgrew their wheeze. Whereas 408 (67.35%) in 606 cases who did not receive inhaled hormone therapy outgrew their wheeze. There was significant difference of clinical control rate between inhaled group and non-inhaled group (P<0.01). Con-clusions The age of wheezing onset is<7 years in 89.66%of children with recurrent wheeze. Most of them can be clinicalycon-trolled. The long term inhaled hoemone therapy for children with recurrent wheeze can reduce the risk of developing adulthood asthma.