Shared prenatal impacts among childhood asthma, allergic rhinitis and atopic dermatitis: a population-based study

Increasing prevalence of childhood allergic diseases including asthma is a global health concern, and we aimed to investigate prenatal risk factors for childhood asthma and to address the potential shared prenatal impacts among childhood asthma, allergic rhinitis (AR) and atopic dermatitis (AD).

We used two claim databases, including Taiwan Birth Cohort Study (TBCS) and National Health Insurance Research Database (NHIRD), to identify independent paired mother-child data (mother-child dyads) between 2006 and 2009. The association between prenatal factors and asthma was determined by calculating adjusted odds ratio (aOR) with 95% confidence interval (CI) using conditional logistic regression analysis.

A total of 628,878 mother-child dyads were included, and 43,915 (6.98%) of children developed asthma prior to age 6. We found that male gender (aOR 1.50, 95% CI 1.47-1.53), maternal asthma (aOR 1.80, 95% CI 1.71-1.89), maternal AR (aOR 1.33, 95% CI 1.30-1.37), preterm birth (aOR 1.32, 95% CI 1.27-1.37), low birth weight (aOR 1.14, 95% CI 1.10-1.19) and cesarean section (aOR 1.10, 95% CI 1.08-1.13) were independent predictors for childhood asthma. A high urbanization level and a low number of older siblings were associated with asthma in a dose-response manner. Notably, we identified that the association between maternal asthma and childhood asthma (aOR 1.80, 95% CI 1.71-1.89) was stronger compared with those between maternal asthma and childhood AR (aOR 1.67, 95% CI 1.50-1.87) as well as childhood AD (aOR 1.31, 95% CI 1.22-1.40). Similarly, the association between maternal AR and childhood AR (aOR 1.62, 95% CI 1.53-1.72) was higher than those between maternal AR and childhood asthma (aOR 1.33, 95% CI 1.30-1.37) as well as childhood AD (aOR 1.35, 95% CI 1.31-1.40). Furthermore, the number of maternal allergic diseases was associated with the three childhood allergic diseases in a dose-response manner.

In conclusion, this population-based study provided evidence of prenatal impacts on childhood asthma and demonstrated the shared maternal impacts among childhood asthma, AR, and AD. These findings highlight the shared prenatal impacts among allergic diseases, and studies are warranted to address the pivotal pathway in allergic diseases.