Month of Birth & Childhood Asthma

Background: Studies in the United States and Europe show that children born in fall-winter have higher risk of developing atopic status later in life. This study examines the relationship between month of birth and development of atopic status at 3 years of age across Canada. Method: The data were obtained from the Canadian Healthy Infant Longitudinal Development (CHILD) study. Data about month of birth, exposure to second hand smoking, mold, pet and cold were extracted from self reported questionnaire. Exposure to Nitrogen dioxide (NO2) was calculated by averaging the concentration of NO2 for the first six month of life for each participant. In total, 2367 children of approximately 3 years of old including 338 atopic individuals that had complete data on date of birth, atopic status and study location were included. The logistic regression run to do bivariate analysis and build the final model. Results: Results suggest that children born in June and December have higher risk of developing atopic status at three years old, though this result was not significant. Conclusion: Further research is needed to investigate seasonal pollen pattern and its association with atopic status. These results could be used to implement preventive measures for early management of childhood asthma.