Family size, atopic disorders in parents, asthma in children, and ethnicity☆,☆☆,★,★★
Section snippets
Methods
The National Study of Health and Growth was a health surveillance system of primary school children. Information was obtained from English and Scottish samples on the basis of stratified random sampling of employment exchange areas with proportionally more study areas from poorer background and an English “inner city sample” selected by characteristics of deprivation and ethnic composition.15 The selection of the “inner city sample” was based on Small Area Statistics Census information from
Results
The total sample included 17,677 children; but of those, 11,924 (67%) had information on the family set (i.e., two parents and the child). Three thousand eight hundred forty-seven families were excluded from this analysis because of the lack of information for at least one atopic condition in both parents; 1373 families were excluded because of lack of information for at least one atopic condition in the father only; and 533 families were excluded because of lack of information on at least one
Discussion
This study has shown that parents' asthma or wheezing is highly associated with asthma or wheezing in their children, regardless of ethnicity. Other atopic conditions in parents such as eczema, rhinitis, and hay fever are independently associated with child's asthma; but the strength of the association was less than that for parental asthma or wheezing. These findings are consistent in all ethnic groups, except those originating from the Indian subcontinent. Prevalence of asthma or wheezing in
Acknowledgements
We thank our colleagues in the team and all parents, children, and helpers in the study areas.
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2021, Journal of Asian EconomicsCitation Excerpt :Some scholars have discovered that only children are more likely to be self-centered, anxious, impulsive, and less adaptable (Blake, 1981; Rosenberg & Falk, 1989). Rona, Duran-Tauleria, and Chinn (1997) studied children from five to ten years old in England and Scotland and found a negative correlation between family size and childhood asthma; children in larger families were less likely to develop asthma. Ponsonby, Couper, Dwyer, and Carmichael (1998) investigated the effects of siblings on asthma and hay fever among children in Australia and also found an inverse relationship between the number of siblings and the likelihood of developing asthma and hay fever.
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2018, Economics and Human BiologyCitation Excerpt :A number of studies in child health research have corroborated the hygiene hypothesis, showing that children in large families are less likely to have excess body weight (Edwards and Grossman, 1979; Kruger et al., 2006). Moreover, some studies indicate that children in large families are also less prone to suffer from diseases and medical conditions, such as diarrhoea, respiratory infection, hay fever, asthma, and allergy (Strachan, 1989, 1997; Rona et al., 1997; Ponsonby et al., 1999; Jensen and Ahlburg, 2002). The above empirical evidence indicates that it is possible that the combination of health benefits of a large sibship size (such as development of immunity) and the presence of a generous social safety net could offset the negative health impacts of resource constraints imposed by a rise in family size.
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2005, Immunology and Allergy Clinics of North AmericaEthnic variations in UK asthma frequency, morbidity, and health-service use: A systematic review and meta-analysis
2005, LancetCitation Excerpt :Our searches identified 2086 studies, of which 394 were judged to be relevant on the basis of their titles. After review of abstracts, 37 reports were selected, 14 of which initially satisfied our inclusion criteria.16–29 Of these, one study was later withdrawn because its data overlapped with those of another study,22 giving a total of 13 studies with usable data (figure 1).
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From the Division of Public Health Sciences, United Medical and Dental Schools, St. Thomas' Hospital, London.
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Supported by the English Department of Health and the Scottish Home and Health Department.
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Reprint requests: R. J. Rona, Division of Public Health Sciences, UMDS, St Thomas' Hospital, London SE1 7EH, United Kingdom.
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