Neonatal head circumference, neonatal weight, and risk of hayfever, asthma and eczema in a large cohort of adolescents from Sheffield, England

Abstract

Greater neonatal head circumference may be associated with an increased risk of hayfever, but the inverse relationship between hayfever prevalence and the ratio of head circumference to birth weight challenges the prior hypothesis that greater head circumference relative to body mass reflects abnormal thymic development in utero, increasing the likelihood of allergic sensitization.