Prenatal exposure to acetaminophen and respiratory symptoms in the first year of life.

Background: Prevalence of asthma in developed countries increased between the 1970s and the 1990s. One factor that might contribute to the trends in asthma is the increased use of acetaminophen vs aspirin in children and pregnant women.

Objective: To examine relationships between in utero exposure to acetaminophen and incidence of respiratory symptoms in the first year of life.

Increasing burden and risk factors for bronchiolitis-related medical visits in infants enrolled in a state health care insurance plan.

Objectives: The goals were to estimate the year-round burden of health care visits attributable to bronchiolitis and to identify risk factors for bronchiolitis in term healthy infants.

Methods: We conducted a population-based, retrospective cohort study of 103 670 term, non-low birth weight infants enrolled in Tennessee Medicaid in 1995-2003. We monitored infants through the first year of life.

Effect of maternal asthma and asthma control on pregnancy and perinatal outcomes.

Background: Asthma is a common condition during pregnancy.

Objective: We sought to determine the effect of asthma on the rates of adverse pregnancy and fetal outcomes.

Methods: We identified pregnancies among black and white women age 15 to 44 with singleton gestations enrolled in the Tennessee Medicaid program over a period of 9 consecutive years, from 1995to 2003, and used claims data to determine the relationship of maternal asthma and asthma exacerbations on pregnancy and infant outcomes.

Maternal asthma and maternal smoking are associated with increased risk of bronchiolitis during infancy.

Objective: Our goal was to determine whether maternal asthma and maternal smoking during pregnancy are associated with the incidence and severity of clinically significant bronchiolitis in term, otherwise healthy infants without the confounding factors of small lung size or underlying cardiac or pulmonary disease.

Patients And Methods: We conducted a population-based retrospective cohort study of term, non-low birth weight infants enrolled in the Tennessee Medicaid Program from 1995 to 2003. The cohort of infants was followed through the first year of life to determine the incidence and severity of bronchiolitis as determined by health care visits and prolonged hospitalization.

Cessation of asthma medication in early pregnancy.

Objective: The objective of the study was to determine whether women alter their use of asthma medications during pregnancy.

Study Design: Weekly asthma medication use was determined from prescription claims data in a cohort of 112,171 pregnant women aged 15 to 44 years who were continuously enrolled in the Tennessee Medicaid program prior to their singleton pregnancy and who delivered a singleton birth during 1995 to 2001. Change in asthma medication use was evaluated using generalized estimating equation analyses.

Human metapneumovirus infection plays an etiologic role in acute asthma exacerbations requiring hospitalization in adults.

We determined the prevalence of human metapneumovirus (hMPV) infection in adults with asthma who were prospectively enrolled after hospitalization for an acute asthma exacerbation. Nasal wash specimens collected at admission and 3 months after discharge were tested for hMPV by real-time reverse-transcription polymerase chain reaction assays. hMPV was detected in 7 (6.

The relationship between vaccine refusal and self-report of atopic disease in children.

Background: In the last 3 decades, there has been an unexplained increase in the prevalence of asthma and hay fever.

Objective: We sought to determine whether there is an association between childhood vaccination and atopic diseases, and we assessed the self-reported prevalence of atopic diseases in a population that included a large number of families not vaccinating their children.

Methods: Surveys were mailed to 2964 member households of the National Vaccine Information Center, which represents people concerned about vaccine safety, to ascertain vaccination and atopic disease status.