Adult height in women with childhood asthma – a population‐based study

Abstract

Purpose: To study adult height in children that grew up with asthma before inhaled steroids became first‐line therapy.Methods: Data from the Swedish Medical Birth Register (self‐reported asthma) and the Hospital Discharge Register (first hospitalization for asthma) were used, to compare adult height for asthmatic and non‐asthmatic pregnant women. The analysis was restricted to women in their first full‐term pregnancy, born in Sweden between 1960–1974 and of Swedish citizenship.Results: The mean height of all the women in the study population was 166.7 cm (SD = 8.8, n = 287,750) and of the women who reported asthma 166.5 cm (SD = 6.1, n = 13,059, p < 0.01). The mean height of women first hospitalized because of asthma at age 0–8 years was 165.5 cm (SD = 5.9 cm, n = 555, p < 0.01). Among the asthmatic women, there was no skew distribution of heights.Conclusions: Girls with moderate to severe childhood asthma who grew up before inhaled glucocorticosteroids became first‐line therapy attained 0.7–1.2 cm lower adult height. The differences in height, while of statistical relevance, are not clinically relevant. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.