Prevalence estimates and risk factors for early childhood wheeze across Europe: the EuroPrevall birth cohort.

• Published in: Thorax
• Main Authors: Selby, Anna, Munro, Alasdair, Grimshaw, Kate E, Cornelius, Victoria, Keil, Thomas, Grabenhenrich, Linus, Clausen, Michael, Dubakiene, Ruta, Fiocchi, Alessandro, Kowalski, Marek L, Papadopoulos, Nikolaos G, Reche, Marta, Sigurdardottir, Sigurveig T, Sprikkelman, Aline B, Xepapadaki, Paraskevi, Mills, E N Clare, Beyer, Kirsten, Roberts, Graham
• Other Authors: 1 Clinical and Experimental Sciences and Human Development and Health Academic Units, Faculty of Medicine, University of Southampton, Southampton, UK. 2 Department of Paediatrics, Royal Hampshire County Hospital, Winchester, UK. 3 Department of Nutrition and Dietetics, Southampton Children's Hospital, Southampton, UK. 4 Imperial Clinical Trials Unit, School of Public Health, Imperial College London, London, UK. 5 Institute of Social Medicine, Epidemiology and Health Economics, Charité University Medical Centre, Berlin, Germany. 6 Institute for Clinical Epidemiology and Biometry, Julius-Maximilians-Universitat Wurzburg, Wurzburg, Germany. 7 Department for Infectious Disease Epidemiology, Robert Koch Institute, Berlin, Germany. 8 Department for Dermatology, Venerology and Allergology, Charité University Medical Centre, Berlin, Germany. 9 Children's Hospital, Landspitali - The National University Hospital of Iceland, Reykjavik, Iceland. 10 Faculty of Medicine, Vilnius University, Vilnius, Lithuania. 11 Division of Allergy, Ospedale Pediatrico Bambino Gesu, Roma, Italy. 12 Department of Immunology, Rheumatology and Allergy, Medical University of Lodz, Lodz, Poland. 13 Allergy Unit, 2nd Paediatric Clinic, University of Athens, Athens, Greece. 14 Centre for Paediatrics and Child Health, Institute of Human Development, University of Manchester, Manchester, UK. 15 Hospital Universitario Infanta Sofía, San Sebastián de los Reyes, Madrid, Spain. 16 Department of Immunology, Landspitali - The National University Hospital of Iceland, Reykjavik, Iceland. 17 Department of Pediatric Pulmonology and Allergology, Beatrix Children's Hospital, University Medical Center Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands. 18 Institute of Inflammation and Repair, Manchester Academic Health Science Centre, Manchester Institute of Biotechnology, University of Manchester, Manchester, UK. 19 Department of Paediatric Pulmonology and Immunology, Charité University Medical Centre, Berlin, Germany. 20 NIHR Southampton Respiratory Biomedical Research Centre, University Hospital Southampton NHS Foundation Trust, Southampton, UK. 21 The David Hide Asthma and Allergy Research Centre, St Mary's Hospital, Isle of Wight, UK.
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: BMJ Publishing Group 2019
• Subjects: asthma epidemiology; paediatric asthma; Öndunarfærasjúkdómar; Astmi; Leikskólabörn; Respiratory Sounds; Asthma; Child; Preschool; Iceland
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/2336/620781; https://doi.org/10.1136/thoraxjnl-2016-209429

To access publisher's full text version of this article click on the hyperlink below Preschool wheeze is an important problem worldwide. No comparative population-based studies covering different countries have previously been undertaken. To assess the prevalence of early childhood wheeze across Europe and evaluate risk factors focusing on food allergy, breast feeding and smoke exposure. Infants from nine countries were recruited into the EuroPrevall birth cohort. At 12 and 24 months, data on wheeze, allergic signs/symptoms, feeding, smoke exposure, infections and day care attendance were collected using questionnaires. Poisson regression was used to assess risk factors for wheeze. 12 049 infants were recruited. Data from the second year of life were available in 8805 (73.1%). The prevalence of wheeze in the second year of life ranged from <2% in Lodz (Poland) and Vilnius (Lithuania) to 13.1% (95% CI 10.7% to 15.5%) in Southampton (UK) and 17.2% (95% CI 15.0% 19.5%) in Reykjavik (Iceland). In multivariable analysis, frequent lower respiratory tract infections in the first and second years of life (incidence rate ratio (IRR) 1.9 (95% CI 1.3 to 2.6) and 2.5 (95% CI 1.9 to3.4), respectively), postnatal maternal smoking (IRR 1.6, 95% CI 1.1 to 2.4), day care attendance (IRR 1.6, 95% CI 1.1 to 2.5) and male gender (IRR 1.3, 95% CI 1.0 to 1.7) were associated with wheeze. The strength of their association with wheeze differed between countries. Food allergy and breast feeding were not independently associated with wheeze. European Commission under the 6th Framework Programme Integrated Approaches to Food Allergy and Allergy Risk Management, a 7th Framework Collaborative Project UK Food Standards Agency