Pediatric allergy: a brief review of risk factors associated with developing allergic disease in childhood.

OBJECTIVE

To briefly review some of the factors that have been implicated in the causation of the increased prevalence of allergic disease in children.

DATA SOURCES

MEDLINE search of original research and review articles related to the various risk factors considered responsible for the increased prevalence of allergic disease in children.

STUDY SELECTION

Author selected references.

CONCLUSIONS

It has been established that there is an increased prevalence of allergic disease, especially in children. Risk factors that are currently under investigation include: genetic atopic predisposition, early childhood allergen exposure and sensitization, occurrence of viral respiratory infections in young children, maternal smoking during pregnancy, poor dietary factors, lack of breast-feeding, childhood obesity, having a certain immunologic predisposition (Th2-prone), air pollution, and frequent immunizations in childhood. It is most likely that the occurrence of allergic disease will be found to be multifactorial.