title: Risk of subsequent asthma in children with febrile seizures: a nationwide population-based retrospective cohort study.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  No study has reported a relationship between febrile seizures and asthma; thus, we examined the association between these two disorders.
  
  
  METHODS
  We identified 991 cases of children with febrile seizures as the case cohort, and the control group was matched according to age, sex, urbanization level, and their parents' occupation at a 1:4 ratio. We applied the Cox proportional hazards regression model to estimate the hazard ratios and 95% confidence intervals for asthma among the children with febrile seizures.
  
  
  RESULTS
  After 11 years of follow-up, the asthma incidence in the febrile seizure group was approximately 5% higher than that in the control group (log-rank test, P < 0.0001). The risk of asthma in the febrile seizure group was 1.41 times higher than that in the control group (95% confidence interval, 1.21-1.65; P < 0.001). Furthermore, the risk of asthma development increased (0.96 vs 3.62) in conjunction with the frequency of febrile seizure-related medical visits (one to two visits vs more than four visits; P < 0.0001).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Febrile seizures may be associated with an increase in the risk of future asthma occurrence in children. We observed a significantly higher cumulative incidence of asthma occurrence in children with more febrile seizure-related medical visits.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatrics, Taichung Veterans General Hospital, Taichung, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Wen-Ya
authors.initials: WY
authors.lastname: Lin
authors.affiliation: Management Office for Health Data, China Medical University Hospital, Taichung, Taiwan; College of Medicine, China Medical University, Taichung, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Chih-Hsin
authors.initials: CH
authors.lastname: Muo
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatrics, Taichung Veterans General Hospital, Taichung, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Yi-Chia
authors.initials: YC
authors.lastname: Ku
authors.affiliation: Graduate Institute of Clinical Medical Science and School of Medicine, College of Medicine, China Medical University, Taichung, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Fung-Chang
authors.initials: FC
authors.lastname: Sung
authors.affiliation: Graduate Institute of Clinical Medical Science and School of Medicine, College of Medicine, China Medical University, Taichung, Taiwan; Department of Nuclear Medicine and PET Center, China Medical University Hospital, Taichung, Taiwan. Electronic address: d10040@mail.cmuh.org.tw.
authors.forename: Chia-Hung
authors.initials: CH
authors.lastname: Kao
mesh_terms: D001249:Asthma / Q000453:epidemiology*; D002675:Child, Preschool; D015897:Comorbidity; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D007223:Infant; D008297:Male; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012306:Risk; D003294:Seizures, Febrile / Q000453:epidemiology*; D013624:Taiwan / Q000453:epidemiology
keywords: asthma; cohort study; febrile seizure; nationwide population-based