title: Cough during infancy and subsequent childhood asthma.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Wheezing in infancy has been associated with subsequent asthma, but whether cough similarly influences asthma risk has been little studied. We sought to determine whether prolonged cough and cough without cold in the first year of life are associated with childhood asthma.
  
  
  METHODS
  Participants in the Infant Immune Study, a non-selected birth cohort, were surveyed 7 times in the first 9 months of life regarding the presence of wheeze and cough. Cough for more than 28 days was defined as prolonged. Parents were asked at 1 year if the child ever coughed without a cold. Asthma was defined as parental report of physician diagnosis of asthma, with symptoms or medication use between 2 and 9 years. Logistic regression was used to assess adjusted odds for asthma associated with cough characteristics.
  
  
  RESULTS
  A total of 24% (97) of children experienced prolonged cough and 23% (95) cough without cold in the first 9 months, respectively. Prolonged cough was associated with increased risk of asthma relative to brief cough (OR 3.57, CI: 1.88, 6.76), with the risk being particularly high among children of asthmatic mothers. Cough without cold (OR 3.13, 95% CI: 1.76, 5.57) was also independently associated with risk of childhood asthma. Both relations persisted after adjustment for wheeze and total IgE at age 1.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Prolonged cough in infancy and cough without cold are associated with childhood asthma, independent of infant wheeze. These findings suggest that characteristics of cough in infancy are early markers of asthma susceptibility, particularly among children with maternal asthma.
authors.affiliation: Division of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, College of Public Health, University of Arizona Health Sciences Center, Tucson, AZ, USA.
authors.forename: E
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0001-7817-3516
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Oren
authors.affiliation: College of Nursing, University of Arizona Health Sciences Center, Tucson, AZ, USA.|Arizona Respiratory Center, College of Medicine, University of Arizona Health Sciences Center, Tucson, AZ, USA.
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Rothers
authors.affiliation: Arizona Respiratory Center, College of Medicine, University of Arizona Health Sciences Center, Tucson, AZ, USA.
authors.forename: D A
authors.initials: DA
authors.lastname: Stern
authors.affiliation: Arizona Respiratory Center, College of Medicine, University of Arizona Health Sciences Center, Tucson, AZ, USA.
authors.forename: W J
authors.initials: WJ
authors.lastname: Morgan
authors.affiliation: Arizona Respiratory Center, College of Medicine, University of Arizona Health Sciences Center, Tucson, AZ, USA.|Department of Pharmacology, College of Medicine, University of Arizona Health Sciences Center, Tucson, AZ, USA.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Halonen
authors.affiliation: Arizona Respiratory Center, College of Medicine, University of Arizona Health Sciences Center, Tucson, AZ, USA.|Department of Pediatrics, College of Medicine, University of Arizona Health Sciences Center, Tucson, AZ, USA.
authors.forename: A L
authors.initials: AL
authors.lastname: Wright
mesh_terms: D001249:Asthma / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000209:etiology*; D003371:Cough / Q000150:complications* / Q000453:epidemiology*; D004198:Disease Susceptibility; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D008297:Male; D011446:Prospective Studies; D012307:Risk Factors
keywords: LRIs; allergy; childhood asthma; cough; parental asthma