Kusunoki T, Asai K, Harazaki M, Korematsu S, Hosoi S
Department of Pediatrics, Kyoto University, Kyoto, Japan.
J Allergy Clin Immunol. 1999 Jun;103(6):1148-52. doi: 10.1016/s0091-6749(99)70191-0.
Month of birth has been shown to affect later development of allergic diseases.
We sought to evaluate the relationship between month of birth and the prevalence of atopic dermatitis (AD) in a large-scale general population of schoolchildren and to elucidate the possible mechanism for this relationship.
Questionnaire data on the prevalence of allergic diseases were obtained for 33,725 schoolchildren aged 7 to 15 years. In a separate study the water-holding capacity of "uninvolved" skin was compared for children with and without AD.
We found striking differences in the prevalence of AD according to the month of birth (chi2 = 34.9, P <.0001). Overall, those born in autumn showed the highest (7.5%), and those born in spring showed the lowest (5.5%), prevalence of AD. There was little or no such tendency for the prevalence of bronchial asthma (chi2 = 17.2, P =.103) and allergic rhinitis (chi2 = 24, P =.01). We found no statistical variation across birth month in the ratio of AD with no other allergic disease/total AD, indicating that this deviation was observed whatever the allergic predisposition of the subjects. In a separate study a significantly lower water-holding capacity of uninvolved skin was observed in children with AD even from early infancy.
These findings lead us to speculate that the climate in early infancy affects the skin condition and that those born in autumn have dry skin in early infancy, which may ultimately result in a higher prevalence of AD among young schoolchildren. This might be at least one of the "nonallergic" etiologic factors of this complex disease.
出生月份已被证明会影响过敏性疾病的后期发展。
我们试图评估出生月份与大规模学龄儿童总体人群中特应性皮炎（AD）患病率之间的关系，并阐明这种关系的可能机制。
获取了33725名7至15岁学龄儿童过敏性疾病患病率的问卷调查数据。在另一项研究中，比较了患有和未患有AD的儿童“未受累”皮肤的持水能力。
我们发现根据出生月份，AD患病率存在显著差异（χ2=34.9，P<.0001）。总体而言，秋季出生的儿童AD患病率最高（7.5%），春季出生的儿童患病率最低（5.5%）。支气管哮喘（χ2=17.2，P=.103）和过敏性鼻炎（χ2=24，P=.01）的患病率几乎没有这种趋势。我们发现不同出生月份的AD且无其他过敏性疾病/总AD的比例没有统计学差异，这表明无论受试者的过敏易感性如何，都观察到了这种偏差。在另一项研究中，即使在婴儿早期，患有AD的儿童未受累皮肤的持水能力也明显较低。
这些发现使我们推测婴儿早期的气候会影响皮肤状况，秋季出生的婴儿在早期皮肤干燥，这可能最终导致学龄儿童中AD患病率较高。这可能至少是这种复杂疾病的“非过敏性”病因之一。
