Outcome of childhood asthma in mid-adult life

Abstract

A prospective 28 year follow up of 7 year old children with wheezing and asthma began in 1963 in Melbourne, Australia.1 2 We aimed to describe the outcome of childhood asthma at 35 and the changes since the last review, at 28.3 The children who were selected at 7, on the basis of parents’ responses to a questionnaire, had been classified in terms of wheeze as those who had never wheezed (controls) (n = 106); those with fewer than five episodes associated with apparent respiratory infection (mild wheezy bronchitis) (n = 75); those with five or more episodes associated with an apparent respiratory infection (wheezy bronchitis) (n = 107); and those with wheezing not associated with respiratory infection (asthma) (n = 113). A fifth group of children, with severe asthma (n = 79), was selected at age …