Characterization of Asthma Trajectories from Infancy to Young Adulthood
Maria Ödling, Gang Wang, Niklas Andersson, Jenny Hallberg, Christer Janson, Anna Bergström, Erik Melén, Inger Kull
Abstract
BACKGROUND: Development of asthma is complicated by the multidimensional nature of the disease. OBJECTIVE: To identify and characterize trajectories of asthma from infancy to young adulthood, and their associations with lung function and inflammatory and respiratory markers in adolescence and young adulthood. METHODS: A latent class analysis was performed in a population-based cohort (N = 4089). Parental and self-reported symptoms of asthma were used to investigate asthma development. We characterized background factors, allergic comorbidity, and IgE sensitization and investigated associations with asthma markers. RESULTS: cells/L) at age 24 years compared with the adolescent-onset trajectory group (31.0% vs 18.5%; P < .01). CONCLUSIONS: The adolescent-onset and persistent asthma trajectory groups had equal burdens of asthma control in adolescence and young adulthood. However, the persistent asthma trajectory group showed more signs of type 2 inflammation than the adolescent-onset trajectory group. This unbiased approach highlights the need of identifying patients with adolescent asthma to optimize care, because they suffer the same lack of asthma control as those with persistent asthma.