Asthma and Wheezy Bronchitis in a British National Sample
Abstract
Journal of Asthma, 24(5) 289-296 (1987) Asthma and Wheezy Bronchitis in a British National Sample Bernice A. Kaplan Department of Anthropology Wayne State University Detroit, Michigan C. G. N. Mascie-Taylor Department of Biological Anthropology University of Cambridge Cambridge, England INTRODUCTION A large number of biosocial factors are associated with childhood asthma and wheezy bronchitis. These include the sex of the child, family size, parental age, and social class, as well as allergy-related conditions such as eczema (1-8). Many previous studies of childhood asthma have concentrated on a selected sample or on a sample living within a small geographic region. The present study provides information on a large British national sample consisting of the cohort of children born in Britain during one specific week in March, 1958. In a n earlier paper (41, we analyzed the factors associated with childhood asthma when these children were aged 7 years. Using discriminant function analysis it was clear that at that age we could distinguish between asthmatics and nonasthmatics quite successfully (89%). In this paper we examine the children 4 years later, a t age 11,to determine the extent to which the same and different factors were now associated with asthma and