Abstract
A group of children with a past history of wheezing was randomly
selected from the Melbourne community at the age or 7 years in 1964, and
a further group of children with severe wheezing was selected from the
same birth cohort at the age of 10 years. These subjects have been
followed prospectively at 7-year intervals, with the last review in
1999, when their,average age was 42 years. Eighty-seven percent of the
original cohort who were still alive participated in the 1999 review.
This study showed that the majority of children who had only a few
episodes of wheezing associated with symptoms of a respiratory infection
had a benign course, with many ceasing to wheeze by adult life. Most who
continued with symptoms into adult life were little troubled by them.
Conversely, those children with asthma mostly continued with significant
wheezing into adult life, and the more troubled they were in childhood,
the more likely symptoms continued. There was a loss, in lung function
by the age of 14 years in those with severe asthma, but the loss did not
progress in adult life. The childhood asthma had been treated before the
availability of inhaled steroids. There was no significant loss of lung
function in those with milder symptoms.
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