Abstract 612 Epidemiology Topic Plenary, Monday, 5/3

The incidence of asthma and its associated morbidity is increasing in the Western world. The identification of risk factors is of growing importance. Our aim was to assess the effect of perinatal characteristics on the risk for asthma at 17 yrs of age. We performed a population-based analysis of 16,239 consecutive singleton infants born between November 1974 and February 1976. Information regarding the pregnancy, its outcome, and socio-demographic details was available from the prospectively-collected records of the Jerusalem Perinatal Study. The diagnosis of asthma at age 17 yrs was extracted from the military draft medical board database and was based on evaluation by a pulmonologist and pulmonary function tests. Crude and adjusted odds ratios (OR) for asthma were calculated by a logistic regression analysis for the following factors: maternal and paternal smoking, ethnic origin, social class, maternal education, birth order, birth weight and gestational age. The odds ratios (95% Confidence Interval) for asthma by maternal education groups were: (Table) The risk for asthma was positively associated with the maternal yrs of schooling. The risk was also found to be related to high social class and high (≥5) birth order for both genders, and maternal smoking for females only. Birth weight and gestational age were not associated with the risk for asthma. We conclude that a complex interaction between socio-demographic and ethnic factors contributes to the risk of asthma at late adolescence.

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