ArticleAnnals of allergy, asthma & immunology : official publication of the American College of Allergy, Asthma, & Immunology2026
Impact of varying childhood asthma definitions on incidence and clinical outcomes.
Article in Annals of allergy, asthma & immunology : official publication of the American College of Allergy, Asthma, & Immunology, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.
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.
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.
Who cites it
0 citing papers in PubMed.
No citing paper in PubMed yet.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
6 authors.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundThe absence of a standardized asthma definition in epidemiologic studies undermines the consistency of incidence estimates and the comparability of clinical outcomes.
objectiveTo evaluate the impact of integrating bronchodilator response (BDR) into parent-reported asthma definitions by comparing incidence, disease severity, control, and diagnostic performance across these definitions, and to assess the individual diagnostic performance of BDR and fractional exhaled nitric oxide in identifying asthma cases.
methodsWe used data from a prospective cohort of 919 infants with severe (hospitalized) bronchiolitis to explore 4 asthma definitions: (1) broad, any physician diagnosis of asthma by age 6 years, as reported by parents; (2) epidemiologic, definition 1 plus either asthma medication use (eg, inhaled bronchodilator, inhaled corticosteroid, systemic corticosteroid, and montelukast) or asthma-related symptoms between ages 5.0 and 5.9 years; (3) alternative strict, definition 2 plus a post-BDR increase of 8% or greater in predicted forced expiratory volume in 1 second; and (4) strict, definition 2 plus a post-bronchodilator increase of more than 10% in predicted forced expiratory volume in 1 second. Outcomes were assessed across these definitions, and their diagnostic performance was compared with a physician reviewer's asthma diagnosis (reference standard).
resultsThe incidence rates for the 4 definitions were 37.2%, 27.7%, 13.2%, and 9.3%, respectively, with intermittent asthma severity classification following a similar pattern (72.4%, 65.5%, 56.0%, and 52.8%). Transitioning from the first to the fourth definition improved specificity and positive predictive value but reduced sensitivity, with no consistent trends being observed for asthma control across definitions.
conclusionThese findings suggest that incorporating BDR into parent-reported asthma definitions underestimates asthma incidence and identifies cases with worse clinical outcomes.
Indexed as
Identifiers
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.