The long-term prognosis of childhood asthma in a predominantly rural Swedish county

Abstract

In 1985 a survey questionnaire was sent to 119 individuals who had been hospitalized as children (aged 5-15) because of asthma over a ten-year period (1953-1962). Four patients out of 123 had died, three of them because of asthma. The response rate was 98% and the follow-up covered a time range from 23 to 31 years. The mean age at follow-up was 33 (range 26-43) and sixty-four individuals (55%) were free from symptoms. The severity of asthma was evaluated by means of a symptom-score divided into 5 degrees (no symptoms to continuous asthma). Symptom onset under the age of 4, the occurrence of atopic eczema and increased sensitivity to pollen, furry animals and respiratory tract infections correlated significantly (p less than 0.05, p less than 0.05 and p less than 0.01, respectively) with the occurrence of continuous adult asthma. A factor which appears to predict the development of adult asthma is a high level of medical care, expressed as the number of days of hospitalization during childhood.