Analysis of epidemiological studies: facts and artifacts.
Cohort studies have provided the foundation for much of our knowledge of childhood asthma. Four important lessons have been learned from these longitudinal studies: that asthma is a complex disease, encompassing many phenotypes; that it is linked to the development of the immune system and respiratory tract in the first years of life; that early life events strongly affect the development of asthma risk and that relationships between certain exposures and asthma risk are age dependent. The Tucson Children's Respiratory Study is used to exemplify these lessons and to illustrate the advantages of cohort studies in investigating a complex disease.
Wright
Anne L
AL
Arizona Respiratory Center and Department of Pediatrics, The University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ 85724, USA. Awright@resp-sci.arizona.edu
D000818:Animals; D000829:Animals, Domestic / Q000276:immunology; D001249:Asthma / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000276:immunology; D001942:Breast Feeding; D002648:Child; D015331:Cohort Studies; D006801:Humans; D007073:Immunoglobulin E / Q000276:immunology; D007223:Infant; D010641:Phenotype; D012135:Respiratory Sounds / Q000235:genetics / Q000276:immunology; D012140:Respiratory Tract Diseases / Q000276:immunology; D012307:Risk Factors; D013601:T-Lymphocytes / Q000276:immunology
D007073:Immunoglobulin E