Childhood Asthma Exacerbation Predictors Identified

Asthma exacerbations are more common among children aged 0 to 4 years compared with older children, and occur most frequently during the spring and fall months, according to new findings presented at the Pediatric Academic Societies 2018 Meeting.

Heather Hoch, MD, of Children’s Hospital Colorado in Aurora, and colleagues arrived at this conclusion following a study of 14,547 children and adolescents aged 0 to 20 years with an asthma diagnosis. Participant data were obtained from electronic health records between January 1, 2011, and March 30, 2016.
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Participants were categorized based on eosinophil levels and exacerbation risk. Logistic regression models were used to determine the seasonal prevalence of asthma exacerbations.

In this cohort, approximately 41% of participants experienced exacerbations over the course of the study period. Results indicated that boys were more likely than girls to have an exacerbation (odds ratio [OR] 1.10). Children aged 0 to 4 years also had higher odds of experiencing an exacerbation compared with children aged 5 to 11 years (OR 1.89) or 12 to 21 years (OR 3.15).

Furthermore, participants with high eosinophilic levels were more likely to experience exacerbations compared with those with low levels (OR 1.89).

Exacerbations were found to occur most often in the spring (OR 1.25) and fall months (OR 1.31) and least often during the summer (OR 0.6).

—Christina Vogt

Reference:

Hoch H. Assessing risk for asthma exacerbations in the real world: What markers should pediatricians use? Presented at: The Pediatric Academic Societies 2018 Meeting; May 5-8, 2018; Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

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