چکیده (انگلیسی):

Background: Exercise-induced wheezing (EIW) may be a symptom of asthma and is a predictor of exerciseinduced
bronchoconstriction, transient narrowing of the lower airway following exercise in the presence or absence
of diagnosed asthma. Population-based studies with a large sample of EIW in relation to age, sex, current
asthma severity and medication usage have been sparse.
Methods: International Study of Asthma and Allergies in Childhood questionnaires were distributed at 885
nurseries, 535 primary schools, 321 junior high schools and 190 high schools, respectively, across Japan, and
the corresponding data on 46,597, 41,216, 45,960 and 51,104 children were analyzed.
Results: Prevalence of EIW was 4.8, 4.7, 17.9 and 15.4% for each of the four educational facility types, respectively.
Among 24,103 current asthmatics, 20.9, 28.7, 76.1 and 73.6% of subjects for the 4 educational facility
groups reported to have experienced EIW, respectively. Severity of current asthma was associated with the
risk of EIW; odds ratio (95% confidence interval) of children with asthma attack every day for having EIW once
a week or more, using intermittent asthmatics as reference group, were 24.48 (19.33 to 31.01) adjusted for
other covariates. Among current asthmatic kindergartners, increase in risk for EIW due to ascending severity of
current asthma was mitigated by daily use of leukotriene receptor antagonist (p for interaction = 0.071).
Conclusions: EIW was not rare among current asthmatic children. An increased risk for EIW was in accordance
with increasing severity of current asthma and this relation was mitigated with leukotriene receptor antagonist
daily use among kindergartners.