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Adult height in women with childhood asthma--a population-based study
E Norjavaara1, M Gerhardsson de Verdier, B Lindmark
1AstraZeneca R&D Lund, Sweden. maria.gerhardsson@astrazeneca.com
Purpose:
To study adult height in children that grew up with asthma before inhaled steroids became first-line therapy.
Methods:
Data from the Swedish Medical Birth Register (self-reported asthma) and the Hospital Discharge Register (first hospitalization for asthma) were used, to compare adult height for asthmatic and non-asthmatic pregnant women. The analysis was restricted to women in their first full-term pregnancy, born in Sweden between 1960-1974 and of Swedish citizenship.
Results:
The mean height of all the women in the study population was 166.7 cm (SD = 8.8, n = 287,750) and of the women who reported asthma 166.5 cm (SD = 6.1, n = 13,059, p < 0.01). The mean height of women first hospitalized because of asthma at age 0-8 years was 165.5 cm (SD = 5.9 cm, n = 555, p < 0.01). Among the asthmatic women, there was no skew distribution of heights.
Conclusions:
Girls with moderate to severe childhood asthma who grew up before inhaled glucocorticosteroids became first-line therapy attained 0.7-1.2 cm lower adult height. The differences in height. while of statistical relevance, are not clinically relevant.