Abstract
Among children who received infants' health checks in our hospital from 1991 to 1995, the rate of development of bronchial asthma until the time they entered schools was investigated by the questionnaire to the parents. According to the skin conditions in the health checks, 150 children examined were categorized into the following three groups: group A (9%); children diagnosed as atopic dermatitis, group B (22%); children not diagnosed as atopic dermatitis but having light skin symptoms, group C (69%); children without skin symptoms. 71% of group A, 33% of group B and 21% of group C developed asthmatic until entering schools. The asthmatic prevalence rate was 29% of the whole, and was significantly higher among children that had more obvious skin symptoms. The family history of allergic diseases was seen in 56% of the whole. The asthmatic rate was 15% among children without family history but was 41% with family history. It was significantly high among children with family history, and especially reached 64% in group B with family history.
It seems that the risk of the future development of asthmatic becomes high not only among infants who were diagnosed as atopic dermatitis but also among ones who had both light skin symptoms and family history of allergic diseases.
