Food allergy, dermatologic diseases, and anaphylaxisThe natural course of atopic dermatitis from birth to age 7 years and the association with asthma☆
Section snippets
Study population
The German Multicenter Atopy Study (MAS), a prospective observational birth cohort, recruited 1314 of 7609 infants born in 1990 in 6 German delivery wards in 5 German cities. A detailed description of the stratified sampling scheme and study subjects is given elsewhere.4 Briefly, 499 newborns with risk factors for atopy (increased cord blood IgE [≥0.9 kU/L], at least 2 atopic family members, or both) and 815 newborns with none of these risk factors were included in the cohort. These children
Response rates (see e-text in the Journal's Online Repository at www.mosby.com/jaci)
Of the 1314 children in the MAS birth cohort, 1123 (85.5%) children participated in at least one follow-up in each of the first 2 years of life. Of these 1123 children, 665 (59.2%) participated in blood sampling at age 2 years, and 858 (76.4%) had complete data on the course of AD up to the age of 7 years (ie, participated in every follow-up).
Early manifestation of AD
Of the 1123 MAS children included in the present analyses, 13.4% had AD in the first year of life. By age 2 years, the lifetime prevalence amounted to
Discussion
In a large, observational, population-based birth cohort, we assessed and analyzed the manifestation and natural course of AD. Early AD, defined as onset of disease in the first 2 years of life, was a frequent phenomenon with a prevalence of 21.5%. Almost half (43.2%) of these children, however, were in remission after their second birthday. Major determinants of the prognosis of early AD were severity of disease and early atopic sensitization. Early AD was significantly associated with wheeze
Acknowledgements
We thank all participants of the MAS for their cooperation. Furthermore, we thank the nurses Petra Wagner, Berlin, Gabriele Leskosek, Düsseldorf, Roswitha Mayerl, München, and Brigitte Hampel, Mainz, and the mathematicians Günter Edenharter and Christine Sommerfeld.
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Supplementary data associated with this article can be found at doi:10.1016/j.jaci.2004.01.778.
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Collaborators of the Multicenter Allergy Study (MAS) group: Volker Wahn, MD, and Marketa Groeger, MD, Düsseldorf; Fred Zepp, MD, and Imke Bieber, MD, Mainz; Johannes Forster, MD, and Uta Tacke, MD, Freiburg; and Carl-Peter Bauer, MD, Gaisach; Renate Bergmann, Berlin.