Relationships between functional measurements and childhood respiratory diseases according to the age of onset.

In a working population of 912 men, aged 22 to 54 years, 8.3% reported a history of childhood respiratory illness before 16 years of age. Those reporting a history of bronchitis or pneumonia (BP) before 2 years of age had significantly lower FEV1 values than those who did not report such a history, whereas those reporting BP at a later age, or primary tuberculosis, did not have lower values. The observed association was unlikely to be due to preferential recall bias, since BP before 2 years of age was not associated with a higher reported prevalence of current respiratory symptoms of cough, phlegm, or dyspnea, and the observed association remained after exclusion of those with a history of wheezing or asthma. Furthermore, the relation remained significant after taking into account parental smoking, Pi phenotype and a history of eczema in childhood. These results suggest that BP before 2 years of age, a period of rapid alveolar multiplication, may be related to the occurrence of adult chronic air-flow limitation.