ATOPIC-DERMATITIS MAY BE LINKED TO WHETHER A CHILD IS FIRST-BORN OR SECOND-BORN AND OR THE AGE OF THE MOTHER/

Five hundred and thirty families,vith at least 1 child who had been re ferred to a dermatologist with atopic dermatitis were interviewed in a n effort to determine whether factors such as the age of the mother wh en a child is born and/or birth rank can contribute to the development of atopic dermatitis. The families interviewed had a total of 1,084 c hildren, or an average of 2 children per family, Sixty per cent of the children with atopic dermatitis were under 5 years of age. Ninety-one per cent of them had developed the disease before the age of 3; those most severely affected had developed the disease during the first yea r of life. In families with 2 children, but only 1 child with atopic d ermatitis, the odds ratio for the second child to develop atopic derma titis was 1.379 (0.025<p<0.05). The average maternal age was 24.8 to 2 5.2 years when giving birth to the first child and 28 years when givin g birth to the second child, irrespective of the status of the child, Thus, atopic dermatitis can be related to birth rank or to the age of the mother.