Asthma diagnosis and treatmentPreterm delivery and asthma: A systematic review and meta-analysis
Section snippets
Search strategy and inclusion criteria
We performed a systematic literature search of the MEDLINE database from 1966 through May 2005 using the following search command: asthma [Epidemiology, Etiology, Genetics, Pathology] AND preterm delivery [Premature labor, Premature Infant, Gestational Age]. The abstracts identified by this search were screened to eliminate the obviously irrelevant ones. For the remaining, copies of the full articles were retrieved and screened according to the following a priori inclusion criteria: (1)
Studies
The MEDLINE search identified 62 articles. On the basis of their abstracts, 38 studies were eliminated as being obviously irrelevant. The remaining 24 studies were retrieved and reviewed in detail: 11 met the criteria defined in the “Methods” section and were included in the analysis. Reference lists of the articles that fulfilled our inclusion criteria were checked; 17 further articles were identified and reviewed, and 8 of these fulfilled our inclusion criteria and consequently were included
Discussion
This systematic review and meta-analysis based on 19 epidemiologic studies fulfilling a priori inclusion criteria indicates that children born prematurely have an approximately 7% higher risk of asthma compared with term children. The magnitude of the study-specific estimates varied substantially. Taking into account this heterogeneity, preterm babies could have, on average, a 36% higher risk of asthma than term babies.
In stratified analyses the effect of preterm delivery on asthma was stronger
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Supported by the West Midlands Regional Levy Board, United Kingdom.
Disclosure of potential conflict of interest: The authors have declared that they have no conflict of interest.