According to a new study, factors such as eczema and wheezing appeared to increase the overall risk for atopic disorders in pediatric patients.

“Although a relatively small birth cohort, our data support the notion that both early manifestations of the clinical phenotype with or without concomitant allergen sensitization are risk factors for subsequent atopic disorders, and that the early clinical phenotypes may precede the allergen sensitization and atopic disease later in life,” Phaik Ling Quah, PhD, of the department of pediatrics and Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine at the National University of Singapore, and colleagues wrote.

Quah and colleagues evaluated 253 families and followed children with a first degree relative with a history of allergic disease. The researchers performed a skin prick test on the children at ages 2 years and 5 years.

Researchers found that allergic sensitization — such as from food or house mites — was not significantly associated with development of allergic disease such as wheeze or eczema at 5 years. However, allergic sensitization at 2 years was associated with an increased risk for rhinitis at 5 years (adjusted OR = 5.6; 95% CI, 1.1–29.2).

Further, eczema development alone at 2 years significantly increased the risk for developing eczema at 5 years (adjusted OR = 7.1; 95% CI, 1.8-27.8), with allergic sensitization significantly increasing this risk (adjusted OR = 25.4; 95% CI, 4.7-138.5), according to the abstract. This risk was further increased with the addition of wheeze to eczema and allergic sensitization (adjusted OR = 64.9; 95% CI, 4.7-900.0). Patients with eczema at 2 years also had an increased risk for rhinitis at 5 years (adjusted OR = 6.8; 95% CI, 2.0-23.1).

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