Acute Bronchitis and Bronchiolitis Infection in Children with Asthma and Allergic Rhinitis: A Retrospective Cohort Study Based on 5,027,486 Children in Taiwan

Fung-Chang Sung; Chang-Ching Wei; Chih-Hsin Muo; Shan P Tsai; Chao W Chen; Dennis P H Hsieh; Pei-Chun Chen; Chung-Yen Lu

doi:10.3390/v15030810

Acute Bronchitis and Bronchiolitis Infection in Children with Asthma and Allergic Rhinitis: A Retrospective Cohort Study Based on 5,027,486 Children in Taiwan

Viruses. 2023 Mar 22;15(3):810. doi: 10.3390/v15030810.

Authors

Fung-Chang Sung^{1

2

3}, Chang-Ching Wei⁴, Chih-Hsin Muo^{2

5}, Shan P Tsai⁶, Chao W Chen⁷, Dennis P H Hsieh⁸, Pei-Chun Chen⁵, Chung-Yen Lu^{9

10}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Health Services Administration, College of Public Health, China Medical University, Taichung 406, Taiwan.
² Management Office for Health Data, China Medical University Hospital, Taichung 404, Taiwan.
³ Department of Food Nutrition and Health Biotechnology, Asia University, Taichung 413, Taiwan.
⁴ Department of Pediatrics, College of Medicine, China Medical University, Taichung 404, Taiwan.
⁵ Department of Public Health, College of Public Health, China Medical University, Taichung 406, Taiwan.
⁶ School of Public Health, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX 77843, USA.
⁷ University of Maryland Global Campus, Adelphi, MD 20783, USA.
⁸ Department of Environmental Toxicology, University of California at Davis, Davis, CA 95616, USA.
⁹ Department of Sport and Health Management, Da-Yeh University, Changhua 515, Taiwan.
¹⁰ The School of Chinese Medicine for Post Baccalaureate, I-Shou University, Kaohsiung 824, Taiwan.

Abstract

This study evaluated the risks of childhood acute bronchitis and bronchiolitis (CABs) for children with asthma or allergic rhinitis (AR). Using insurance claims data of Taiwan, we identified, from children of ≤12 years old in 2000-2016, cohorts with and without asthma (N = 192,126, each) and cohorts with and without AR (N = 1,062,903, each) matched by sex and age. By the end of 2016, the asthma cohort had the highest bronchitis incidence, AR and non-asthma cohorts followed, and the lowest in the non-AR cohort (525.1, 322.4, 236.0 and 169.9 per 1000 person-years, respectively). The Cox method estimated adjusted hazard ratios (aHRs) of bronchitis were 1.82 (95% confidence interval (CI), 1.80-1.83) for the asthma cohort and 1.68 (95% CI, 1.68-1.69) for the AR cohort, relative to the respective comparisons. The bronchiolitis incidence rates for these cohorts were 42.7, 29.5, 28.5 and 20.1 per 1000 person-years, respectively. The aHRs of bronchiolitis were 1.50 (95% CI, 1.48-1.52) for the asthma cohort and 1.46 (95% CI, 1.45-1.47) for the AR cohort relative to their comparisons. The CABs incidence rates decreased substantially with increasing age, but were relatively similar for boys and girls. In conclusion, children with asthma are more likely to develop CABs than are children with AR.

Keywords: acute bronchitis and bronchiolitis; allergic rhinitis; asthma; human respiratory syncytial virus.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Acute Disease
Asthma* / epidemiology
Asthma* / etiology
Bronchiolitis* / epidemiology
Bronchitis* / complications
Bronchitis* / epidemiology
Child
Female
Humans
Male
Retrospective Studies
Rhinitis, Allergic* / complications
Rhinitis, Allergic* / epidemiology
Taiwan / epidemiology

Grants and funding

This study was supported in part by Taiwan’s Ministry of Health and Welfare Clinical Trial Center (MOHW110-TDU-B-212-124004), Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST 110-2321-B-039-003), and China Medical University Hospital (DMR-111-228). The funders had no role in the study design, data collection and analysis, the decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.