Start date: January 1999Planned end date: December 2000
Estimated cost: £147,694

Research objectives

The Avon Longitudinal Study of Pregnancy and Childhood has followed children born in Avon during 1991 and 1992 from before birth to age 7 years. Parental questionnaires including histories of wheezing illness have been administered at approximately annual intervals from 6 months to 81 months. Among 8241 children followed at 6, 18, 30 and 42 months of age, 1498 (18%) had wheezed by 6 months, 2480 (30%) by 18 months and 3193 (39%) by 42 months. It is anticipated that information on prevalence, severity, diagnosis and treatment of wheezing at age 81 months will be obtained for about 90% of these children. This large, population-based birth cohort offers an opportunity to examine predictors of medium-term prognosis for early childhood wheezing. The main objective of the study will be to identify characteristics of wheezy pre-school children which predict persistence and severity of symptoms at 7 years of age. The analysis will include both personal history (age at onset, frequency and severity, provoking factors, history of associated atopic diseases, perinatal factors and immunisation history) and family characteristics (parental history of allergic diseases, household structure, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, parental smoking, indoor environment, diet, hygiene). A questionnaire-based scoring system suitable for use by general practitioners will be developed by analysis of 50% of the data and its performance will be tested in the remaining 50%. The generalisability of the prognostic score will be assessed by examining sub-groups defined by ethnicity, socioeconomic status, parental age and urban or rural residence.

For further information contact

Professor David Strachan
Professor of Epidemiology
Department of Public Health Sciences
St George's Medical School
Cranmer Terrace
London, SW17 0RE

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