Researchers link childhood eczema with later-life asthma

by Rich Bowden - Jul 6 2008, 23:30

Australian researchers have made the link between childhood eczema and the onset of asthma later in life.

Image: Childhood eczema. Credit: Care_SMC/flickr

A study conducted by the University of Melbourne, Monash University and Menzies Research Institute in Tasmania and published in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology, found the incidence of people with asthma greatly increased if they had eczema as a child.“The incidence of asthma in people from the ages of 8 to 44 who had childhood eczema, was nearly double that of people who had never had eczema,’’ said Dr Burgess, from the University of Melbourne’s Melbourne School of Population Health and lead author of the paper.The study followed more than 8500 people from the age of seven to 44 who were part of the Tasmanian Longitudinal Health Study and discovered that eczema was the first stage in an allergic process which led to asthma and hay fever in later life according to a University of Melbourne release.Dr Burgess said the study advocates an "aggressive" treatment of childhood eczema to prevent the later onset of asthma and other allergic conditions.“The results of our study showed childhood eczema clearly preceded asthma in each later stage of life – later childhood, adolescence, and adulthood,’’ he said. “This makes a strong argument for trialing aggressive therapies against childhood eczema to help reduce the burden of asthma later in life.”

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