| . |
20030131-2 The importance of prenatal
exposures on the development of allergic disease: a birth cohort study
using the West Midlands General Practice
Database - American
Journal of Respiratory Care Medicine , vol 166, no 6, September
2002, pp 827-832 McKeever TM; Lewis SA; Smith C; et
al - (2002) |
| |
The etiology of allergic disease is not understood,
but a decreased exposure to infection may play an important role. There
are few published data on the impact of change in microbial exposure
during pregnancy on the child's risk of developing allergic disease. Using
a birth cohort of 24,690 children, derived from the West Midlands General
Practice Research Database, we investigated a number of perinatal
exposures on the incidence of asthma, eczema, and hay fever. Our findings
suggest that exposure to antibiotics in utero is associated with an
increased risk of asthma in a dose-related manner (more than two courses
of antibiotics compared with none adjusted hazard ratio [HR] 1.68; 95%
confidence interval [CI], 1.51-1.87), and similar associations are present
for eczema (adjusted HR 1.17; 95% CI, 1.06-1.29) and hay fever (adjusted
HR 1.56; 95% CI, 1.22-2.01). Exposure to a range of infections in utero
was also associated with a small increased risk of developing allergic
disease. Strong protective effects of older siblings on the incidence of
allergy are present within this cohort, but previous pregnancies that did
not result in a live birth were not protective. Our findings suggest that
exposure to antibiotics and to infections in utero is a potentially
important risk factor in the development of allergic disease.
(Author) |
Hi
Larraine,
Is this the one? I found it on
the MIDIRS site.
Cheers,
Sadie
|
