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American Journal of Epidemiology Advance Access originally published online on January 25, 2007
American Journal of Epidemiology 2007 165(9):1023-1030; doi:10.1093/aje/kwk092
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American Journal of Epidemiology Copyright © 2007 by the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health All rights reserved; printed in U.S.A.

ORIGINAL CONTRIBUTIONS

Fertility Rates in Women with Asthma, Eczema, and Hay Fever: A General Population-based Cohort Study

LJ Tata1, RB Hubbard1, TM McKeever1, CJP Smith2, P Doyle3, L Smeeth3, J West1 and SA Lewis2

1 Division of Epidemiology and Public Health, School of Community Health Sciences, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, University of Nottingham, Nottingham, United Kingdom
2 Division of Respiratory Medicine, School of Medical and Surgical Sciences, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, University of Nottingham, Nottingham, United Kingdom
3 Department of Epidemiology and Population Health, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, University of London, London, United Kingdom

Correspondence to L. J. Tata, Division of Epidemiology and Public Health, School of Community Health Sciences, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, University of Nottingham, Nottingham NG5 1PG, United Kingdom (e-mail: laila.tata{at}nottingham.ac.uk).

Received for publication July 10, 2006. Accepted for publication October 10, 2006.

The protective association between having older siblings and the risk of subsequent allergic disease may be due to decreased fertility among women with allergic disease. In this study, the authors compared fertility rates among women with asthma, eczema, or hay fever with those in the general female population. Computerized primary-care data from the United Kingdom were used to conduct a cohort analysis of 491,516 women. General fertility rates and age-specific fertility rates for 1994–2004 were estimated. Using Poisson regression, the authors compared fertility rates among women with asthma, eczema, or hay fever with rates in women without these diagnoses. Fertility rates were 53.0 and 52.3 livebirths per 1,000 person-years in women with and without asthma, respectively. The fertility rate ratio for women with asthma compared with women without asthma was 1.02 (95% confidence interval (CI): 1.00, 1.04) after adjustment for age, smoking, body mass index, and socioeconomic status. Equivalent fertility rate ratios for eczema and hay fever were 1.15 (95% CI: 1.13, 1.17) and 1.08 (95% CI: 1.06, 1.10), respectively. The authors found no evidence that the fertility rates of women with asthma, eczema, or hay fever are lower than those of women in the general population.

asthma; birth rate; cohort studies; eczema; fertility; hypersensitivity; rhinitis; rhinitis, allergic, seasonal

Abbreviations: CI, confidence interval; FRR, fertility rate ratio; IQR, interquartile range; THIN, The Health Improvement Network


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