PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Jennifer Protudjer
AU  - Cecilia Lundholm
AU  - Anna Bergström
AU  - Inger Kull
AU  - Catarina Almqvist
TI  - Puberty and asthma in a cohort of Swedish children
DP  - 2014 Sep 01
TA  - European Respiratory Journal
PG  - P4249
VI  - 44
IP  - Suppl 58
4099  - http://erj.ersjournals.com/content/44/Suppl_58/P4249.short
4100  - http://erj.ersjournals.com/content/44/Suppl_58/P4249.full
SO  - Eur Respir J2014 Sep 01; 44
AB  - Asthma prevalence and medication use shifts from male to female predominance during the pubertal years, suggesting an involvement of sex-specific factors. We examined associations between pubertal staging and asthma and medication use in a longitudinal cohort of 4089 Swedish children born in 1994-96. At Yr8 and Yr12, asthma was based on parent reports of ≥4 episodes of wheeze, or ≥1 episode of wheeze + inhaled corticosteroid use in the previous 12 months. Pubertal incidence of asthma was defined as no asthma at Yr8, but asthma at Yr12. At Yr12, participants self-reported pubertal development, from which we developed pubertal staging categorisations (Petersen, A.C. et al. J Youth Adolesc. 1988 April;17:117-33). After excluding those with missing data on asthma and/or puberty, our sample size was 2721 (50.2% boys). As most boys (97.8%) were in pre-, early- or mid-puberty and half of girls (47.6%) were in late- or post-puberty, we created sex-specific pubertal staging categories. Using binomial logistic regression, girls had a lower odds of asthma at Yr8 (OR 0.66; 95%CI 0.47-0.92) and Yr12 (OR 0.57; 95% CI 0.42-0.78), compared to boys. In boys, pubertal staging was not statistically significantly associated with asthma or pubertal incidence of asthma. In girls, late/post puberty was inversely associated with asthma (OR 0.35; 95% CI 0.16-0.78), while the odds of pubertal incidence of asthma vs. no asthma at Yr8 or Yr12 decreased with more advanced pubertal staging (mid-puberty: OR 0.36; 95% CI 0.15-0.88; late/post puberty: OR 0.25; 95% CI 0.09-0.68). In neither sex was pubertal staging associated with asthma medication use. To conclude, puberty and asthma prevalence and incidence were inversely associated in girls only.