Rhinitis, sinusitis, and upper airway diseasePreterm birth reduces the incidence of atopy in adulthood
Section snippets
Study participants
The original study cohort consisted of 474 consecutive subjects who were born at very low birth weight between 1978 and 1985 at one of several maternity hospitals that serve the province of Uusimaa, Finland. Of these, 335 (70.7%) were discharged alive from the neonatal intensive care unit of Children’s Hospital at the Helsinki University Central Hospital, the only tertiary neonatal care center of this area. We selected a comparison group of term-born (gestational age ≥37 weeks) subjects who
Characteristics of study participants
Table I shows the characteristics of the study participants. The mean birth weight of the very-low-birth-weight group was 1120 g (range, 600-1500 g), and that of the control subjects was 3593 g (range, 2560-4930 g); the mean gestational ages were 29.2 weeks (range, 24.0-35.6) and 40.1 weeks (range, 37.0-42.9), respectively. The control subjects smoked more often than subjects from the very-low-birth-weight group, whereas the very-low-birth-weight participants were more likely to have a pet at
Discussion
Young adults who were born at very low birth weight had a significantly lower incidence of atopy, which was defined as a positive skin prick test reaction, compared with those born at term. The lowest risk of atopy was observed among subjects born most immature; risk of atopy in adulthood increased with gestational age at birth. Subjects of very low birth weight were also less likely to have serum IgE for specific allergens, and the risk was again lowest among those born the most immature.
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2023, The Lancet Child and Adolescent HealthAnthropometry: A clue for Otorhinolaryngology surgical indications in children
2020, International Journal of Pediatric OtorhinolaryngologyCitation Excerpt :The biological mechanisms behind GA and BW relating with atopy are uncertain, but they were suggested to reflect immune system reactivity due to altered maturation in-utero or neonatally [1,2,4–8]. Studies defend that priming of fetal immune system changes the balance of the T-helper cells response, which could explain why higher BW/GA relates to exacerbated Th2 responses, increasing atopy incidence, whilst lower BW/GA favors Th1 responses decreasing atopic burden [1,2,4,6,21]. On the other hand, some literature refer that the association could be related to obesity itself, as leptin may play a role on atopy [5,9,22].
Relationship between birth weight or fetal growth rate and postnatal allergy: A systematic review
2019, Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology
The Helsinki Study of Very Low Birth Weight Adults has received grant support from the following sources: the Finnish Foundation for Pediatric Research (E.K., K.W., M.S., P.H., and S.A.), Finska Läkaresällskapet (J.G.E. and S.A.), the Finnish Special Governmental Subsidy for Health Sciences (J.G.E. and S.A.), the Academy of Finland (K.W., J.G.E., S.A., and E.K.), the Biomedicum Helsinki Foundation (S.S.K.), the Emil Aaltonen Foundation, the Finnish Concordia Foundation (S.S.K.), the Finnish Medical Society Duodecim (E.K.), the Finnish National Graduate School of Clinical Investigation (S.S.K.), the Jalmari and Rauha Ahokas Foundation (E.K.), the Juho Vainio Foundation (J.G.E. and E.K.), the Novo Nordisk Foundation (J.G.E. and E.K.), the Päivikki and Sakari Sohlberg Foundation (J.G.E. and E.K.), the Pediatric Graduate School (P.H. and S.S.K.), the Clinical Graduate School in Paediatrics and Obstetrics/Gynaecology (P.H.), the University of Helsinki (J.G.E.), the Perklén Foundation (S.S.K.), the Research Foundation for the Orion Corporation (P.H.), the Signe and Ane Gyllenberg Foundation (J.G.E. and E.K.), the Sigrid Juselius Foundation (S.A. and E.K.), the Waldemar von Frenckell Foundation (S.S.K.), Vasa Nation (S.S.K.), Wiipurilainen Osakunta (E.K.) at Helsinki University, the Wilhelm and Else Stockmann Foundation (S.S.K.), and the Yrjö Jahnsson Foundation (P.H., J.G.E., and E.K.).
Disclosure of potential conflict of interest: M. Siltanen has received research support from the Finnish Foundation of Pediatric Research. The rest of the authors have declared that they have no conflict of interest.