Late-asthma onset and associated factors

Although asthma is usually considered to originate in childhood, adult-onset is being increasingly reported. Aim: to assess factors associated to early- (<18 yrs) and late-onset (≥18 yrs) asthma. Methods: Data from a web-based Italian severe/uncontrolled asthma (SUA) registry (released in 2014), including 577 SUA subjects from 6 clinical and epidemiological Italian centres (Pisa1, Perugia, Ancona, Verona, Palermo, Pisa2). Results: 77.5% of SUA subjects had a late-onset asthma. Among subjects with early-onset asthma there were higher frequencies of allergic asthma (92.1 vs 76.4%), asthma familiarity (52.8 vs 42.8%), seasonal symptoms (51.3 vs 27.6%), active smoking habits (8.5 vs 4.4%) and u…