Asthma from childhood to adulthood: asthma severity, allergies, sensitization, living conditions, gender influence and social consequences.

The course of asthma severity, clinical allergies, allergic sensitization, changes in living conditions and social outcome were studied prospectively over five follow-up visits from the mean age of 9 to 30 years in a cohort of 28 boys and 27 girls, selected randomly among asthmatic children attending a paediatric outpatient unit. Asthma severity improved from childhood to adulthood, judged by symptom and medication scores and by the number of hospital admissions, but only nine subjects (16%) had been free from symptoms and medication over the last year of follow-up. After adolescence, asthma continued to improve among the males but not among the females. This difference could not be explained by gender differences in the course of clinical allergies or sensitization (skin-prick-tests and RAST) to common inhaled allergens, or by differences in environmental or social conditions. Sensitization to relevant perennial inhaled allergens correlated with asthma severity during adulthood. In general, clinical allergies and sensitization to inhaled allergens adopted during childhood persisted into adulthood. Approximately 10% of the subjects never adopted a clinical allergy or a positive allergy test. The social outcome was good.