A follow-up study on the outcome of 2 to 5 years old children with asthma at school age / 国际儿科学杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective:To investigate the outcome of asthma in young children after 3 years and the factors associated with the outcome.Methods:A total of 494 children aged 2 to 5 years with asthma diagnosed in 5 hospitals in Beijing from 2016 to 2017 were followed up by telephone using questionnaire survey.Information on the asthma attack, the disease control level, and the comorbidities of allergic diseases in the past 3 years was collected and analyzed.Results:Questionnaires were conducted in 387 children, including 261 males(67.4%)and 126 females(32.6%). Two hundred and forty-six patients(63.6%)had no any asthma symptom(remission) within 3 years, while 141 patients(36.4%)were found with asthma symptom(without remission). The main symptoms were as follows wheezing in 116 cases(82.3%), recurrent cough in 59 cases(41.8%), shortness of breath in 45 cases(31.9%), chest tightness or waking up at night due to wheezing in 22 cases(15.6%). The causes of asthma attack were respiratory tract infection in 80 cases(56.7%), allergen exposure in 46 cases(32.6%), climate change or cold air stimulation in 59 cases(41.8%), strenuous exercise in 36 cases(25.5%), and irritating odor in 3 cases(2.1%). One-way anova analysis showed that significant difference( P<0.05)was respectively observed in age at follow-up, postnatal tobacco smoke exposure history, repeated respiratory tract infection before asthma onset, personal allergy history, snoring, allergic rhinitis, allergic rhinitis within 1 year, allergic conjunctivitis within 1 year between the remission group and without remission group.Multivariate unconditional logistic regression analysis showed that tobacco exposure after birth, allergic rhinitis and allergic conjunctivitis within 1 year were independent risk factors for the continuation of asthma symptoms to school age( P<0.05). Conclusion:Till the school age, more than 1/3 children still had asthma symptom and the risk factors for the unalleviated symptom were postnatal tobacco exposure, allergic rhinitis within 1 year and allergic conjunctivitis within 1 year.