Abstract
Background: Australia has one of the highest asthma rates worldwide and the Indigenous population carry a high burden, yet little is known about the role of perinatal risk determinants on asthma in Indigenous children.
Aim: To identify and quantify potentially preventable risk factors for asthma in Indigenous children.
Methods: Indigenous children born 2000-2013 in Western Australia were identified using linkage of birth data, hospital and emergency data (n = 32 333). Asthma was identified from hospitalisation codes. Odds ratios (OR) and population attributable fractions were calculated for maternal age at birth, parity, remoteness, area-level disadvantage, prematurity, low birth weight, maternal smoking in pregnancy, mode of delivery, maternal trauma and hospitalisations for acute respiratory tract infection (ARTI) in the first year of life. Potential confounders were identified using directed acyclic graphs.
Results: There were 705 (2.8%) children hospitalised for asthma between the ages of 1 - 5 years. Risk factors associated with asthma included: being hospitalised for an ARTI (OR 4.06, 95%CI 3.44,4.78), area-level disadvantage (OR 1.58, 95%CI 1.28,1.94), being born <33 weeks gestation (OR 3.30, 95%CI 2.52,4.32), and being born <1500g (OR 2.35, 95%CI 1.39,3.99). The population attributable risk of asthma due to hospitalised ARTI was 31%, area-level disadvantage 19% and prematurity or low birth weight 3-7%. We did not observe a higher risk of asthma for those children who were from remote areas.
Conclusion: Improving care for pregnant Indigenous women and infants with wheezing illnesses may help to reduce the burden of asthma in the Indigenous population.
Footnotes
Cite this article as: European Respiratory Journal 2020; 56: Suppl. 64, 4638.
This abstract was presented at the 2020 ERS International Congress, in session “Respiratory viruses in the "pre COVID-19" era”.
This is an ERS International Congress abstract. No full-text version is available. Further material to accompany this abstract may be available at www.ers-education.org (ERS member access only).
- Copyright ©the authors 2020