Résumé :
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[BDSP. Notice produite par INIST-CNRS R0x97Hko. Diffusion soumise à autorisation]. The association between infections occurring in the first 2 years of life and development of eczema was investigated in 1,782 control children from a national population-based case-control study in the United Kingdom conducted over the period 1991-1996. Dates of eczema and infectious diagnoses were ascertained from contemporaneously collected primary care records. Children diagnosed with eczema before the age of 2 years had more prior clinically diagnosed infections recorded than did children without eczema (rate ratio=1.26,95% confidence interval (Cl) : 1.18,1.36). The difference in infection rates between children with and without eczema was apparent from birth and throughout the first 2 years of life. As expected, compared with children of second or higher birth order, those firstborn were at increased risk of eczema (p=0.020) ; however, the relation between eczema and prior infection was evident only among children of second or higher birth order and not among firstborn children (rate ratio=1.45,95% Cl : 1.32,1.59, and rate ratio=1.08,95% Cl : 0.98,1.20, respectively). The authors'results are consistent with the notion that the association between birth order and eczema is unlikely to be attributable to variations in early infectious exposure.
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