Williams H, McNicol K N
Br Med J. 1969 Nov 8;4(5679):321-5. doi: 10.1136/bmj.4.5679.321.
Three randomly selected groups of 7-year-old schoolchildren in Melbourne with mild wheezy bronchitis, with moderate wheezy bronchitis, and with asthma were compared with a control group, and the patients followed up until 10 years of age. Comparison showed that if there was any significant difference between the study groups and the controls it was usually present in all these study groups. It was considered that children with wheezy bronchitis and asthma were from the same population with the same underlying basic disorder, and that there was a wide spectrum in various aspects of the natural history of the disorder.About 11% of all children aged 10 years had had some asthmatic episodes. Seventy per cent. of these children ceased having asthma before 10 years of age, while about 30% (3.7% of the whole community) continued to have episodes. There was a highly significant correlation between early age of onset, the frequency of episodes in the first year of symptoms, and the persistence of asthmatic episodes up to 10 years of age.Ten per cent. of all children with asthmatic episodes continued to have symptoms as severely at 10 years as at an earlier period. In this group the onset of symptoms was almost always before 3 years of age, there was a high frequency of episodes in the first year of symptoms, and boys and girls were affected in the ratio of 7:3.
在墨尔本，随机选取了三组7岁学童，分别患有轻度喘息性支气管炎、中度喘息性支气管炎和哮喘，将他们与一个对照组进行比较，并对这些患者随访至10岁。比较结果显示，如果研究组与对照组之间存在任何显著差异，通常在所有这些研究组中都存在。研究认为，患有喘息性支气管炎和哮喘的儿童来自同一人群，有着相同的潜在基础疾病，并且该疾病自然史的各个方面存在广泛的范围。所有10岁儿童中约11%曾有过一些哮喘发作。其中70%的儿童在10岁前停止患哮喘，而约30%（占整个社区的3.7%）继续发作。发病年龄早、症状出现第一年的发作频率以及到10岁时哮喘发作的持续情况之间存在高度显著的相关性。所有有哮喘发作的儿童中，10%在10岁时症状仍和早期一样严重。在这组中，症状几乎总是在3岁前出现，症状出现第一年发作频率高，男孩和女孩受影响的比例为7:3。
