Evidence map›Paper›PMID 11254820›Full record

Trial reportThorax2001

Prenatal risk factors of wheezing at the age of four years in Tanzania.

J Sunyer, C Mendendez, P J Ventura, J J Aponte, D Schellenberg, E Kahigwa, C Acosta, J M Antó, P L Alonso

Open access · bronzeAbstract readClinical TrialRandomized Controlled Trial
In one paragraph

Trial report in Thorax, 2001. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 6 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
6citing papers in PubMed, 1 pooled it
0.3field-weighted citation impact, top 42% of its field
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

6 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 22 citations in OpenAlex.

  1. Pooled it
  2. Risk Factors and Mechanisms Leading to Preschool Recurrent Wheeze and Asthma.The journal of allergy and clinical immunology. In practice · 2025
    Review
  3. Article
  4. Particularities of allergy in the Tropics.The World Allergy Organization journal · 2016
    Review
  5. Childhood asthma in low income countries: an invisible killer?Primary care respiratory journal : journal of the General Practice Airways Group · 2012
    Article
  6. Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

9 authors at 1 institution in 2 countries.

J SunyerUnitat de Recerca Respiratòria I Ambiental, Institut Municipal d'Investigació Mèdica (IMIM), Doctor Aiguader 80, E-08003 Barcelona, Spain. jsunyer@imim.es
C Mendendez
P J Ventura
J J Aponte
D Schellenberg
E Kahigwa
C Acosta
J M Antó
P L Alonso
Consorci Institut D'Investigacions Biomediques August Pi I Sunyer · ES

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

backgroundA study was undertaken to assess the interactions between prenatal exposures, early life infections, atopic predisposition, and allergen exposures in the development of wheezing up to the age of 4 years in a tropical region of Africa.

methodsThe study subjects comprised children born at the district hospital in Ifakara, Tanzania during a 1 year period who were participating in a trial of iron supplementation and malaria chemoprophylaxis during the first year of life and followed for up to 4 years. From this group of subjects, 658 (79%) participated in the interview at 18 months and 528 (64%) in a second interview at 4 years. Wheezing was measured with the ISAAC questionnaire. A hospital based inpatient and outpatient surveillance system was set up to document all attendance by study children for any cause, including episodes of clinical malaria and lower respiratory tract infections. Total IgE levels and malaria parasites were measured in maternal and cord blood. Total IgE was also measured at 18 months of age. Indoor environmental levels of Der p I and Fel d I were determined using an enzyme linked immunosorbent assay at the same time as the interview at the age of 18 months.

resultsThe prevalence of wheezing at 4 years is common in Ifakara (14%, range 13-15%). The presence of malaria parasites in cord blood (odds ratio, OR = 6.84, 95% CI 1.84 to 24.0) and maternal asthma (OR = 8.47, 95% CI 2.72 to 26.2) were positively associated with wheezing at the age of 4 years, and cord blood total IgE was negatively associated (OR = 0.24, 95% CI 0.07 to 0.85) (all p<0.05). Parasitaemia at birth was not related to total IgE levels in cord blood (p=0.6). Clinical episodes of malaria during infancy were not associated with wheezing, and nor were levels of indoor aeroallergens.

conclusionThese findings suggest that events occurring during pregnancy may play a role in the future appearance of wheezing, although the results must be interpreted with caution because of the small numbers studied.

Indexed as

MalariaPregnancy Complications, ParasiticAllergensChild, PreschoolEnvironmental ExposureEpidemiologic StudiesFemaleFetal BloodFollow-Up StudiesHumansImmunoglobulin EInfantInfant, NewbornLogistic ModelsMalePregnancyAllergensImmunoglobulin E

Identifiers

PMID11254820
PMCPMC1746018
OpenAlexW2167987014

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.