• Jun-Jun Yeh, Yu-Chiao Wang, Wu-Huei Hsu, and Chia-Hung Kao.
• Department of Chest Medicine and Family Medicine, Ditmanson Medical Foundation Chia-Yi Christian Hospital, Chiayi, Taiwan; Chia Nan University of Pharmacy and Science, Tainan, Taiwan; Meiho University, Pingtung, Taiwan.
• J. Allergy Clin. Immunol. 2016 Apr 1; 137 (4): 1017-1023.e6.

BackgroundPrevious studies investigating the relationship between Mycoplasma pneumoniae and incident asthma in the general population have been inconclusive.ObjectiveWe conducted a nationwide cohort study to clarify this relationship.MethodsUsing the National Health Insurance Research Database of Taiwan, we identified 1591 patients with M pneumoniae infection (International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision, Clinical Modification code 4830) given diagnoses between 2000 and 2008. We then frequency matched 6364 patients without M pneumoniae infection from the general population according to age, sex, and index year. Cox proportional hazards regression analysis was performed to determine the adjusted hazard ratio (aHR) of the occurrence of asthma in the M pneumoniae cohort compared with that in the non-M pneumoniae cohort.ResultsRegardless of comorbidities and the use of antibiotic or steroid therapies, patients with M pneumonia infection had a higher risk of incident asthma than those without it. The aHR of asthma was 3.35 (95% CI, 2.71-4.15) for the M pneumoniae cohort, with a significantly higher risk when patients were stratified by age, sex, follow-up time, and comorbidities, including allergic rhinitis, atopic dermatitis, or allergic conjunctivitis. Patients with M pneumoniae infection had a higher risk of having early-onset (age, <12 years; aHR, 2.87) and late-onset (age, ≥12 years; aHR, 3.95) asthma. The aHR was also higher within the less than 2-year follow-up in the M pneumoniae cohort (aHR, 4.41; 95% CI, 3.40-5.74) than in the cohort without the infection.ConclusionThis study found that incident cases of early-onset and late-onset asthma are closely related to M pneumoniae infection, even in nonatopic patients.Copyright © 2015 American Academy of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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