0000000000679013
AUTHOR
Maria Vassilaki
The Development of the MeDALL Core Questionnaires for a Harmonized Follow-Up Assessment of Eleven European Birth Cohorts on Asthma and Allergies
Background: Numerous birth cohorts have been initiated in the world over the past 30 years using heterogeneous methods to assess the incidence, course and risk factors of asthma and allergies. The aim of the present work is to provide the stepwise proceedings of the development and current version of the harmonized MeDALL-Core Questionnaire (MeDALL-CQ) used prospectively in 11 European birth cohorts. Methods: The harmonization of questions was accomplished in 4 steps: (i) collection of variables from 14 birth cohorts, (ii) consensus on questionnaire items, (iii) translation and back-translation of the harmonized English MeDALL-CQ into 8 other languages and (iv) implementation of the harmoni…
Severe Chronic Allergic (and Related) Diseases: A Uniform Approach – A MeDALL – GA<sup>2</sup>LEN – ARIA Position Paper
Concepts of disease severity, activity, control and responsiveness to treatment are linked but different. Severity refers to the loss of function of the organs induced by the disease process or to the occurrence of severe acute exacerbations. Severity may vary over time and needs regular follow-up. Control is the degree to which therapy goals are currently met. These concepts have evolved over time for asthma in guidelines, task forces or consensus meetings. The aim of this paper is to generalize the approach of the uniform definition of severe asthma presented to WHO for chronic allergic and associated diseases (rhinitis, chronic rhinosinusitis, chronic urticaria and atopic dermatitis) in …
The independent role of prenatal and postnatal exposure to active and passive smoking on the development of early wheeze in children
Maternal smoking during pregnancy increases childhood asthma risk, but health effects in children of nonsmoking mothers passively exposed to tobacco smoke during pregnancy are unclear. We examined the association of maternal passive smoking during pregnancy and wheeze in children aged ≤2 years.Individual data of 27 993 mother–child pairs from 15 European birth cohorts were combined in pooled analyses taking into consideration potential confounders.Children with maternal exposure to passive smoking during pregnancy and no other smoking exposure were more likely to develop wheeze up to the age of 2 years (OR 1.11, 95% CI 1.03–1.20) compared with unexposed children. Risk of wheeze was further …