Eczema Link to Asthma is Weak

Only a minority of children with atopic eczema go on to develop asthma in later childhood, Dutch researchers have found.

Looking at 13 prospective cohort studies, they reported the pooled odds ratio for the risk of asthma after eczema was 2.14.

van der Hulst and colleagues reported that: 'Although there is an increased risk of developing asthma after eczema in early childhood, only one in every three children with eczema develops asthma during later childhood. This is lower than previously assumed.'

J Allergy Clin Immunol 2007; 120: 565-9