title: Birth weight and asthma incidence by asthma phenotype pattern in a racially diverse cohort followed through adolescence.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Low birth weight (LBW) has been shown to be an independent risk factor for asthma. We hypothesized that LBW would have its greatest impact on early onset disease.
  
  
  METHODS
  A racially diverse cohort of children born from 1983 to 1985 at two hospitals, one urban and one suburban in the same metropolitan area, and oversampled for babies weighing ≤2500 g, was identified retrospectively when the children were 6 years of age and followed periodically. At the age 17 years study visit, cohort members and their parent/guardians were separately interviewed face-to-face regarding the subject's history of asthma using the standardized ISAAC questionnaire. We measured the cumulative incidence of asthma from birth through adolescence defined by age of diagnosis and persistence/remittance.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Six-hundred and eighty teens (82.6% of the original cohort) were included in the analyses, 387 with LBW and 293 of normal birth weight. The prevalence of physician-diagnosed "Current Asthma" was associated with LBW (p = 0.003 for trend), with patterns stronger in males and whites. LBW was associated most strongly with Late Onset Persistent asthma (current asthma that was diagnosed after 8 years); p for trend 0.032. This trend was again most evident in males and whites. None of the asthma categories classified as "remittent" were statistically associated with LBW.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  LBW was not associated with diagnosed asthma that remitted before age 17 years. LBW was associated with asthma diagnosis in mid-childhood that persisted through adolescence, suggesting that the asthmagenic effects of LBW can become evident post the early years of childhood and persist into adulthood.
authors.affiliation: a Department of Public Health Sciences , Henry Ford Health System , Detroit , MI , USA .
authors.forename: Christine Cole
authors.initials: CC
authors.lastname: Johnson
authors.affiliation: a Department of Public Health Sciences , Henry Ford Health System , Detroit , MI , USA .
authors.forename: Edward L
authors.initials: EL
authors.lastname: Peterson
authors.affiliation: a Department of Public Health Sciences , Henry Ford Health System , Detroit , MI , USA .
authors.forename: Christine L M
authors.initials: CL
authors.lastname: Joseph
authors.affiliation: b Section of Allergy-Immunology, Georgia Regents University , Augusta , GA , USA , and.
authors.forename: Dennis R
authors.initials: DR
authors.lastname: Ownby
authors.affiliation: c Department of Epidemiology , College of Human Medicine, Michigan State University , East Lansing , MI , USA.
authors.forename: Naomi
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Breslau
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D001741:Black or African American; D017668:Age of Onset; D001249:Asthma / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000208:ethnology; D001724:Birth Weight; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D015331:Cohort Studies; D005260:Female; D005865:Gestational Age; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D007230:Infant, Low Birth Weight; D008297:Male; D008824:Michigan / Q000453:epidemiology; D015995:Prevalence; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012307:Risk Factors; D012737:Sex Factors; D044465:White People
keywords: Age of onset; ISAAC; blacks; cumulative incidence; life course epidemiology; pediatrics; whites