Lung function measures and their relationship to respiratory symptoms in 7- and 8-year-old children

Abnormal pulmonary function in childhood is a well-known risk factor for lu ng function impairment in adult life, it is therefore of clinical interest to recognize lower pulmonary function in childhood. We investigated the ass ociation between asthma-iike respiratory symptoms and the lung function par ameters FVC, FEV1, and FEF25-75 in a population-based sample of 402 schoolc hildren, aged 7 and 8 years, using linear regression analyses. Without accounting for other respiratory symptoms, wheeze, exercise-induced wheeze, chronic cough, and history of wheezy bronchitis or lower respirato ry infections in early childhood were significantly associated with reduced lung function. After stepwise elimination of symptoms from the regression models, only exercise-induced wheeze (FEV1, -15%pred, FEF25-75, -2l%pred) a nd a history of chronic cough (FEV1, -5%pred; FEF25-75, -11%pred) remained significant predictors of decreased lung function. After adjustment for dif ferent variability, no significant differences were seen between the effect s of symptoms on the flow measurements FEV1 and FEF25-75. We conclude that children who report exercise-induced wheeze and/or chronic cough may have a considerable deficit in lung function at early school age . (C) 1999 Wiley-Liss, Inc.