Allergy.  1994 Sep;14(3):297-303.

Characteristics of Patients with old age-onset Asthma

• Kim YK
• Cho SH
• Jee YK
• Yoon HJ
• Min KU
• Kim YY

Abstract

Asthma is a disease commonly encountered in the clinical practice of medicine, with a prevalence in the general population of approximately 3%. Up to 85% of asthmatic individuals experience their first symptoms before the age of 45, but only 3% of all asthmatic patients develop their first symptom after the age of 60. And there has been few descriptions in the literature of old ageonset asthma in non-smoking poplarions. To characterize the non-smoking patients with old age-onset asthma, We compared the patients who had experienced the first asthmatic attack after the age of 60(old age group) with the patients who had experienced it before the age of 30(young age group) and between the age of 30 to 60 (middle age group). The results were as follows: 1. The young age group complained the nasal symptoms more frequently than the other groups. 2. The old age group required systemic steroids more frequently than the other groups. 3. The positivity of skin prick test to common inhalant allergens was higher in the young age group(84.8%) than in the other groups. However, it was more common in the old age-onset group and the other gropus. In conclusion, it is suggested that even in patients with old age-onset asthma atopy plays a important role in the development of asthma, systemic steroid is required more frequently than the other groups, and, therefore, it is important to manage with an appropriate use of steroid as well as an avodance of causative allergens.

MeSH Terms

Allergens
Asthma*
Humans
Prevalence
Skin
Steroids
Allergens
Steroids