The Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology
Volume 117, Issue 3 , Pages 557-562 , March 2006

The September epidemic of asthma hospitalization: School children as disease vectors

  • Neil W. Johnston, MSc

      Affiliations

    • From the Firestone Institute for Respiratory Health, St Joseph's Healthcare and McMaster University, Hamilton
    • Corresponding Author InformationReprint requests: Neil W. Johnston, MSc, Firestone Institute for Respiratory Health, St Joseph's Healthcare, 50 Charlton Ave East, Hamilton, Ontario L8N 4A6, Canada.
    • ,
  • Sebastian L. Johnston, MD, PhD

      Affiliations

    • Department of Respiratory Medicine, National Heart and Lung Institute, Imperial College London
    • ,
  • Geoff R. Norman, PhD

      Affiliations

    • Department of Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics, McMaster University, Hamilton
    • ,
  • Jennifer Dai, MSc

      Affiliations

    • From the Firestone Institute for Respiratory Health, St Joseph's Healthcare and McMaster University, Hamilton
    • ,
  • Malcolm R. Sears, MB, ChB

      Affiliations

    • From the Firestone Institute for Respiratory Health, St Joseph's Healthcare and McMaster University, Hamilton

Received 6 October 2005 ,Revised 21 November 2005 ,Accepted 30 November 2005.

  • Image Result

    A, The annual cycle of asthma hospitalization by age group in Canada by week of the year. Data for all hospitalizations in Canada (excluding Québec) from April 1990 to March 2003 summarized over a sin

    A, The annual cycle of asthma hospitalization by age group in Canada by week of the year. Data for all hospitalizations in Canada (excluding Québec) from April 1990 to March 2003 summarized over a single year. B, The annual cycle of hospitalization for respiratory tract infections by age group in Canada by week of the year. Data for all hospitalizations in Canada (excluding Québec) from April 1995 to March 2003 summarized over a single year.

  • Image Result
    A, The cycle of asthma hospitalization of children age 5 to 15 years from April 1990 to March 2003 as multiples of the weekly mean number of hospitalizations over the whole period. B, The cycle of ast

    A, The cycle of asthma hospitalization of children age 5 to 15 years from April 1990 to March 2003 as multiples of the weekly mean number of hospitalizations over the whole period. B, The cycle of asthma hospitalization of children age 5 to 15 years from April 1990 to March 2003 as multiples of the weekly mean number of hospitalizations within each year.

  • Image Result
    Calculated timing of the September epidemic peaks of asthma hospitalization by age group in relation to the timing of Labor Day from 1990 to 2002.

    Calculated timing of the September epidemic peaks of asthma hospitalization by age group in relation to the timing of Labor Day from 1990 to 2002.

  • Image Result
    Calculated timing by week of the year in weeks from January 1 (left y axis, black line) and magnitude in multiples of the weekly mean (right y axis, white line) of the September epidemic peak by year

    Calculated timing by week of the year in weeks from January 1 (left y axis, black line) and magnitude in multiples of the weekly mean (right y axis, white line) of the September epidemic peak by year of age using data aggregated across all study years.

 Disclosure of potential conflict of interest: M. Sears has received grants from Merck Frosst Canada and AstraZeneca and is on the speakers bureau for Merck Frosst Canada, AstraZeneca, and Altana Pharma. The rest of the authors have no conflict of interest to disclose.Supported in part by the Firestone Institute for Respiratory Health and by British Lung Foundation/Severin Wunderman Family Foundation Lung Research Programme grant number P00/2.

PII: S0091-6749(05)02592-3

doi: 10.1016/j.jaci.2005.11.034

The Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology
Volume 117, Issue 3 , Pages 557-562 , March 2006

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