The University of Southampton
University of Southampton Institutional Repository

Trends in cutaneous sensitization in the first 18 years of life: results from the 1989 Isle of Wight birth cohort study

Trends in cutaneous sensitization in the first 18 years of life: results from the 1989 Isle of Wight birth cohort study
Trends in cutaneous sensitization in the first 18 years of life: results from the 1989 Isle of Wight birth cohort study
Background:
Skin prick testing (SPT) is fundamental to the practice of clinical allergy identifying relevant allergens and predicting the clinical expression of disease. There are only limited data on the natural history of SPT results over childhood and adolescence.

Objective:
We aimed to describe the natural history of SPT and patterns of sensitization over childhood and adolescence.

Methods:
The 1989 Isle of Wight birth cohort (1456 participants) was followed up at 1, 2, 4, 10 and 18 years. SPT was undertaken from 4 years.

Results:
SPT was performed on 980 (80%), 1036 (75%) and 853 (65%) of participants at 4, 10 and 18 years. The prevalence of sensitization to any allergen at these time-points was 19.7%, 26.9% and 41.3% respectively. At each time-point, boys were significantly more likely to be sensitized (P < 0.016) and sensitization significantly increased over childhood and adolescence (average annual increase of 7%). Some children outgrew their sensitization. The rate of sensitization to most individual allergens increased over childhood and adolescence. A configural frequency analysis showed that whether an individual was sensitizated was relatively fixed over childhood and adolescence. Cluster analysis at 4 years demonstrated four major groups of individuals with similar co-sensitization to specific allergens. Children who were sensitized at age 4 years generally went onto become sensitized to additional allergens at 10 and 18 years.

Conclusions and Clinical Relevance:
Allergic sensitization continues to increase over childhood into adolescence although the majority of children who were not sensitized at 4 years remain non-sensitized throughout childhood and adolescence. The presence of sensitization at 4 years predicted later sensitization to additional allergens.
atopy, adolescence, childhood, prevalence, sensitization, allergy
0954-7894
1501-1509
Roberts, G.
ea00db4e-84e7-4b39-8273-9b71dbd7e2f3
Zhang, H.
49b0dd51-9e3e-4c73-ac6f-af1bd3a9bcd0
Karmaus, W.
d78616d6-bc9c-4664-a461-7c0d0be5e39e
Raza, A.
28cf549d-f7e9-4f43-b60e-8c7866cb1d1d
Scott, M.
7381f9d2-a8bd-42cc-9388-780d15b41602
Matthews, S.
79b68905-6033-4cf8-8a36-af956611f854
Kurukulaaratchy, R.J.
9c7b8105-2892-49f2-8775-54d4961e3e74
Dean, T.
4a68a12c-bf67-4157-87c9-71e1ea6c94db
Arshad, S.H.
917e246d-2e60-472f-8d30-94b01ef28958
Roberts, G.
ea00db4e-84e7-4b39-8273-9b71dbd7e2f3
Zhang, H.
49b0dd51-9e3e-4c73-ac6f-af1bd3a9bcd0
Karmaus, W.
d78616d6-bc9c-4664-a461-7c0d0be5e39e
Raza, A.
28cf549d-f7e9-4f43-b60e-8c7866cb1d1d
Scott, M.
7381f9d2-a8bd-42cc-9388-780d15b41602
Matthews, S.
79b68905-6033-4cf8-8a36-af956611f854
Kurukulaaratchy, R.J.
9c7b8105-2892-49f2-8775-54d4961e3e74
Dean, T.
4a68a12c-bf67-4157-87c9-71e1ea6c94db
Arshad, S.H.
917e246d-2e60-472f-8d30-94b01ef28958

Roberts, G., Zhang, H., Karmaus, W., Raza, A., Scott, M., Matthews, S., Kurukulaaratchy, R.J., Dean, T. and Arshad, S.H. (2012) Trends in cutaneous sensitization in the first 18 years of life: results from the 1989 Isle of Wight birth cohort study. Clinical & Experimental Allergy, 42 (10), 1501-1509. (doi:10.1111/j.1365-2222.2012.04074.x). (PMID:22994347)

Record type: Article

Abstract

Background:
Skin prick testing (SPT) is fundamental to the practice of clinical allergy identifying relevant allergens and predicting the clinical expression of disease. There are only limited data on the natural history of SPT results over childhood and adolescence.

Objective:
We aimed to describe the natural history of SPT and patterns of sensitization over childhood and adolescence.

Methods:
The 1989 Isle of Wight birth cohort (1456 participants) was followed up at 1, 2, 4, 10 and 18 years. SPT was undertaken from 4 years.

Results:
SPT was performed on 980 (80%), 1036 (75%) and 853 (65%) of participants at 4, 10 and 18 years. The prevalence of sensitization to any allergen at these time-points was 19.7%, 26.9% and 41.3% respectively. At each time-point, boys were significantly more likely to be sensitized (P < 0.016) and sensitization significantly increased over childhood and adolescence (average annual increase of 7%). Some children outgrew their sensitization. The rate of sensitization to most individual allergens increased over childhood and adolescence. A configural frequency analysis showed that whether an individual was sensitizated was relatively fixed over childhood and adolescence. Cluster analysis at 4 years demonstrated four major groups of individuals with similar co-sensitization to specific allergens. Children who were sensitized at age 4 years generally went onto become sensitized to additional allergens at 10 and 18 years.

Conclusions and Clinical Relevance:
Allergic sensitization continues to increase over childhood into adolescence although the majority of children who were not sensitized at 4 years remain non-sensitized throughout childhood and adolescence. The presence of sensitization at 4 years predicted later sensitization to additional allergens.

This record has no associated files available for download.

More information

Published date: October 2012
Keywords: atopy, adolescence, childhood, prevalence, sensitization, allergy
Organisations: Human Development & Health

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 351102
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/351102
ISSN: 0954-7894
PURE UUID: c4e79c47-37f8-46c7-9470-a9210652507b
ORCID for G. Roberts: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0003-2252-1248
ORCID for R.J. Kurukulaaratchy: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0002-1588-2400

Catalogue record

Date deposited: 15 Apr 2013 15:32
Last modified: 15 Mar 2024 03:22

Export record

Altmetrics

Contributors

Author: G. Roberts ORCID iD
Author: H. Zhang
Author: W. Karmaus
Author: A. Raza
Author: M. Scott
Author: S. Matthews
Author: T. Dean
Author: S.H. Arshad

Download statistics

Downloads from ePrints over the past year. Other digital versions may also be available to download e.g. from the publisher's website.

View more statistics

Atom RSS 1.0 RSS 2.0

Contact ePrints Soton: eprints@soton.ac.uk

ePrints Soton supports OAI 2.0 with a base URL of http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/cgi/oai2

This repository has been built using EPrints software, developed at the University of Southampton, but available to everyone to use.

We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. If you continue without changing your settings, we will assume that you are happy to receive cookies on the University of Southampton website.

×