Comorbid disorders associated with asthma in children in Germany - National analysis of pediatric primary care data

Abstract

Background: Using routine healthcare data, the goal of this study was to examine the association between asthma and comorbid disorders in children in Germany.

Methods: Patients with a diagnosis of asthma documented by a German pediatrician in 2015 were identified. Demographic data included age and gender. Patients younger than 6 and older than 17 and individuals followed for less than a year before index date were excluded. Each patient was matched for age, sex, and physician with an asthma-free control. A total of 34,305 cases and 34,305 controls were available for analysis. There were three different age groups: 6-9 years, 10-13 years, and 14-17 years. Several disorders known to be associated with asthma or found in more than 1% of children and adolescents were also determined on the basis of primary care diagnoses. A multivariate logistic regression model was used to estimate the association between asthma and comorbid disorders.

Results: The mean age was 10.9 years, and 61.6% of the subjects were boys. The most common diseases found in the three age groups were vasomotor and allergic rhinitis, chronic bronchitis, chronic rhinitis, pneumonia, and atopic dermatitis. These five comorbid disorders were associated with asthma to a significant extent.

Conclusions: Overall, this study, based on primary healthcare data, found a considerably high prevalence of several comorbid diseases in German children with asthma.

Keywords: asthma; comorbidity; primary health care.