No abstract

Low consumption of fruits and high of meat by the child, and high consumption of potatoes and pasta by the mother had a negative effect on wheezing, rhinitis or dermatitis; while fast food consumption was inconsistent.

Background: There are no internationally validated questionnaires to investigate the prevalence of infant wheezing. This study was undertaken to validate a questionnaire for the International Study on the Prevalence of Wheezing in Infants (Estudio Internacional de Sibilancias en Lactantes, EISL). Material and Methods: Construct and criterion validity were tested for the question ‘Has your baby had wheezing or whistling in the chest during his/her first 12 months of life?’. Construct validity (i.e. the ability of parents and doctors to refer to the same symptoms with the same words) was tested in a sample of 50 wheezing and 50 non-wheezy infants 12–15 months of age in each of 10 centres from 6 different Spanish- or Portuguese-speaking countries. Criterion validity (i.e. the ability of parents to correctly detect the symptom in the general population) was evaluated in 2 samples (Santiago, Chile and Cartagena, Spain) of 50 wheezing and 50 non-wheezing infants (according to parents) of the same age, randomly selected from the general population, who were later blindly diagnosed by a paediatric pulmonologist. Results: Construct validity was very high (ĸ test: 0.98–1) in all centres. According to Youden’s index, criterion validity was good both in Cartagena (75.5%) and in Santiago (67.0%). Adding questions about asthma medication did not improve diagnosis accuracy. Conclusions: The EISL questionnaire significantly distinguished wheezy infants from healthy ones. This questionnaire has a strong validity and can be employed in large international multicentre studies on wheezing during infancy.

There have been no worldwide standardised surveys of prevalence and severity of asthma, rhinoconjunctivitis and eczema in school children for 15 years. The present study aims to provide this information.Following the exact International Study of Asthma and Allergies in Childhood (ISAAC) methodology (cross-sectional questionnaire-based survey) the Global Asthma Network (GAN) Phase I was carried out between 2015 and 2020 in many centres worldwide.The study included 157 784 adolescents (13–14 years of age) in 63 centres, in 25 countries; and 101 777 children (6–7 years of age) in 44 centres, in 16 countries. The current prevalence of symptoms, respectively, was: 11.0% and 9.1% for asthma; 13.3% and 7.7% for rhinoconjunctivitis; and 6.4% and 5.9% for eczema. For asthma ever, hay fever ever and eczema ever prevalence was 10.5% and 7.6%; 15.2% and 11.1%; and 10.6% and 13.4%. Centres in countries with low- or lower-middle- gross national income (LICs or L-MICs) had significantly lower prevalence of the three disease symptoms and diagnoses (except for hay fever). In children, the prevalence of asthma and rhinoconjunctivitis symptoms were higher in males, while the reverse occurred among adolescents. For eczema, while the prevalence among female adolescents was double that of males, there was no sex difference among children. Centre accounted for a non-negligible variability of all disease symptoms (10% to 20%).The burden of asthma, rhinoconjunctivitis and eczema vary widely among the limited number of countries studied. Although symptom prevalence is lower in LICs and L-MICs, it represents a considerable burden everywhere studied.