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


METHODS
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.


RESULTS
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.


CONCLUSIONS
Asthma as assessed in community studies is unrelated to final height or body proportions.
Rona
Roberto J
RJ
Department of Public Health Sciences, King's College London, 5th Floor Capital House, 42 Weston St, London SE1 3QD, UK. Roberto.rona@kcl.ac.uk
Smeeton
Nigel C
NC
Vargas
Claudio
C
Bustos
Patricia
P
Amigo
Hugo
H
D000328:Adult; D000485:Allergens / Q000009:adverse effects; D001249:Asthma / Q000503:physiopathology*; D001827:Body Height; D049628:Body Size / Q000502:physiology*; D016535:Bronchial Hyperreactivity / Q000276:immunology; D016085:Bronchoconstrictor Agents / Q000008:administration & dosage; D002677:Chile; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D006969:Hypersensitivity, Immediate / Q000503:physiopathology; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D016210:Methacholine Chloride / Q000008:administration & dosage; D012044:Regression Analysis; D012882:Skin Tests
D000485:Allergens; D016085:Bronchoconstrictor Agents; D016210:Methacholine Chloride