Analysis of Respiratory Viral Exposure and Timing of Exposure During Infancy with Development of Childhood Asthma

• Activity Number: 428
• Type: Contributed
• Date/Time: Wednesday, August 9, 2006 : 10:30 AM to 12:20 PM
• Sponsor: Section on Statistics in Epidemiology
• Author(s): Pingsheng Wu*+ and Tebeb Gebretsadik and William Dupont and Marie Griffin and Rachel Enriquez and Kecia Carroll and Tina Hartert
• Companies: Vanderbilt University School of Medicine and Vanderbilt University School of Medicine and Vanderbilt University School of Medicine and Vanderbilt University School of Medicine and Vanderbilt University School of Medicine and Vanderbilt University School of Medicine and Vanderbilt University School of Medicine
• Keywords: childhood asthma ; respiratory viral exposure ; timing of exposure

Abstract

Asthma is one of the most common chronic conditions of childhood, and severe viral infection is one of significant risk factors for developing asthma. Our study objective is to identify the role of seasonal respiratory viral exposure and the timing of exposure during infancy on the risk of childhood asthma. We analyzed over 85,000 infants in the Tennessee Medicaid program from 1995 - 2004 and followed them to age 5 years. We applied the logistic regression model controlling for confounders. Restrictive cubic spline of infant age at the peak of viral circulation was used to describe the relationship of infant age and childhood asthma. Weekly bronchiolitis hospitalization counts were used as a surrogate marker of viral intensity. The model was further examined in a separate test dataset. Our results may lead to new strategies for both the prevention and treatment of childhood asthma.