Background

 Allergy is highly associated with childhood asthma. House dust mite allergy is the most common cause of allergic asthma. it is not well known if there is a relationship between the dust mite sensitization and childhood asthma severity.

Objective

The objectives of the study were to examine the relationships between dust mite sensitization and asthma severity in asthmatic children.

Methods

This is a retrospective and comparative study including children with asthma followed in the pneumology department B of the Abderrahmane Mami hospital. We defined two groups: group 1: asthmatic children with dust mite sensitization (n =61), group 2: asthmatic children without dust mite sensitization (n =52).

Results

We included 113 asthmatic children with sex ratio at 1.1, an average age at 8 years [3-17 years]. There was no significant difference between the 2 groups regarding age (7,6 vs 7,4 years), gender (p=0,12), socioeconomic conditions (p=1) and passive smoking (p=0,69). Comorbidities didn?t differ between groups (p=1). The group 2 was more exposed to passive smoking without significant difference (10 vs 7; p=0,77). Analysis of childhood asthma severity parameters shows no difference between the 2 groups regarding hospitalization (p=0,21), the use of oral corticosteroid therapy (p=1) and an advanced level of GINA (p=0,46). Blood hyper-eosinophilia was similar in both groups (p=0,56).

Conclusion

 Dust mite sensitization does not seem to have a negative impact on the severity of the disease and hospitalization. The lack of positive relationships between dust mite sensitization with asthma severity supports the hypothesis of different risk factors being associated with asthma and with the severity of asthma.