Untreated asthma, final height and sitting height/leg length ratio in Chile

There is uncertainty as to whether asthma has an effect on final height. We investigated using subjective and objective assessments whether untreated asthma is associated with final height, leg length and sitting height to leg length ratio in an area of Chile in which almost no one received asthma t...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Respiratory medicine 2006-05, Vol.100 (5), p.911-917
Main Authors: Rona, Roberto J., Smeeton, Nigel C., Vargas, Claudio, Bustos, Patricia, Amigo, Hugo
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adult
Allergens - adverse effects
Asthma
Asthma - physiopathology
Biological and medical sciences
Body Height
Body Size - physiology
Bronchial Hyperreactivity - immunology
Bronchoconstrictor Agents - administration & dosage
Chile
Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, asthma
Cross-Sectional Studies
Female
Height
Humans
Hypersensitivity, Immediate - physiopathology
Leg length
Longitudinal Studies
Male
Medical sciences
Methacholine Chloride - administration & dosage
Pneumology
Regression Analysis
Skin Tests
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Summary:There is uncertainty as to whether asthma has an effect on final height. We investigated using subjective and objective assessments whether untreated asthma is associated with final height, leg length and sitting height to leg length ratio in an area of Chile in which almost no one received asthma treatment. We collected data on 1232 males and females aged 22–28 years in a semi-rural area of Chile. Information on asthma was collected using the European Community Respiratory Health Survey (ECRHS) questionnaire. We assessed sensitisation to eight allergens and bronchial hyper-responsiveness (BHR) to methacholine as a dichotomous variable and as a log slope. Information on possible confounders in terms of smoking, birth weight, number of siblings and socio-economic factors such as household possessions, car ownership and education was available. Regardless of the asthma assessment used, there was no association between asthma symptoms, diagnosis of asthma, atopy, BHR as log slope, binary or categorical and height, leg length or the ratio of sitting height to leg length. The latter was used as a potentially more appropriate measure to assess a detriment of growth. Asthma as assessed in community studies is unrelated to final height or body proportions.
ISSN:0954-6111
1532-3064
DOI:10.1016/j.rmed.2005.07.018