ArticleClinical and experimental allergy : journal of the British Society for Allergy and Clinical Immunology2010
Relation of early antibiotic use to childhood asthma: confounding by indication?
Article in Clinical and experimental allergy : journal of the British Society for Allergy and Clinical Immunology, 2010. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 25 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
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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.
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.
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Who cites it
25 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 46 citations in OpenAlex.
- The relationship of prenatal antibiotic exposure and infant antibiotic administration with childhood allergies: a systematic review.BMC pediatrics · 2020Pooled it
- [Association between use of antibacterial agents in the first year of life and childhood asthma: a Meta analysis].Zhongguo dang dai er ke za zhi = Chinese journal of contemporary pediatrics · 2016Pooled it
- Cough during infancy and subsequent childhood asthma.Clinical and experimental allergy : journal of the British Society for Allergy and Clinical Immunology · 2015Trial
- Antibiotic treatment for non-specific upper respiratory tract infections and exacerbation risk in children with asthma: a target trial emulation study.American journal of epidemiology · 2026Article
- Early Childhood Antibiotics and Chronic Pediatric Conditions: A Retrospective Cohort Study.The Journal of infectious diseases · 2025Article
- Respiratory and nonrespiratory symptoms before age 1 year predict school-age asthma.The Journal of allergy and clinical immunology · 2025Article
- Association between antibiotic exposure and childhood atopic dermatitis: a systematic review and meta-analysis.EClinicalMedicine · 2025Article
- European Respiratory Society Research Seminar on Preventing Pediatric Asthma.Pediatric pulmonology · 2025Review
- Contributions of maternal prenatal infection and antibiotic exposure to offspring infection and risk for allergic respiratory conditions through age 5.Brain, behavior, & immunity - health · 2024Article
- Prenatal exposure to RSV season influences first-year risk of RSV lower respiratory illness and RSV-specific immune responses assessed at birth.Journal of virology · 2023Article
- Asthma occurrence in children and early life systemic antibiotic use: an incidence density study.Allergy, asthma, and clinical immunology : official journal of the Canadian Society of Allergy and Clinical Immunology · 2023Article
- Maternal prenatal immunity, neonatal trained immunity, and early airway microbiota shape childhood asthma development.Allergy · 2022Article
- Antibiotic exposure in early life and development of childhood asthma.Canadian family physician Medecin de famille canadien · 2020Article
- Dose, Timing, and Type of Infant Antibiotic Use and the Risk of Childhood Asthma.Clinical infectious diseases : an official publication of the Infectious Diseases Society of America · 2020Article
- Maternal Cytokine Profiles during Pregnancy Predict Asthma in Children of Mothers without Asthma.American journal of respiratory cell and molecular biology · 2018Article
- Macrolides for Acute Wheezing Episodes in Preschool Children.Pediatric allergy, immunology, and pulmonology · 2016Article
- Antibiotics and the Human Gut Microbiome: Dysbioses and Accumulation of Resistances.Frontiers in microbiology · 2015Review
- Antibiotics in fetal and early life and subsequent childhood asthma: nationwide population based study with sibling analysis.BMJ (Clinical research ed.) · 2014Article
- Early development of the gut microbiota and immune health.Pathogens (Basel, Switzerland) · 2014Review
- Perinatal tumor necrosis factor-α production, influenced by maternal pregnancy weight gain, predicts childhood asthma.American journal of respiratory and critical care medicine · 2013Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
5 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundFindings from studies of the relation between early antibiotic use and subsequent asthma have been inconsistent, which may be attributable to methodologic issues.
objectiveOur objective was to assess the impact of confounding by indication on the relation of early antibiotic use to childhood asthma through age 5 in a non-selected birth cohort (n=424).
methodsOral antibiotic use was assessed by frequent nurse interviews in the first 9 months of life. Physician-diagnosed active asthma and eczema were assessed by questionnaire at 1, 2, 3, and 5 years, and were considered as ever asthma or ever eczema if positive at any age. Allergen-specific IgE was assessed in plasma at 1, 2, 3, and 5 years. Confounding by indication was investigated by considering the relation of asthma to antibiotic use while controlling for the number of illness visits to a physician in early life.
resultsThere was no statistically significant relation of early antibiotic use with physician-diagnosed eczema or allergen-specific IgE. A dose-response relation was evident for antibiotic use with ever asthma (odds ratio [OR]=1.5, P=0.047). Ever asthma also increased significantly with the number of illness visits to a physician (P<0.001). After adjustment for number of illness visits, antibiotic use showed no relation with asthma.
conclusionsThe relation of asthma to antibiotics in this cohort appears to be an artefact of the strong relation of number of physician visits for illness with both antibiotic use and risk for asthma.
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What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
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.