RESULTS
In the CHAT study, 464 children, aged 5 to 9 years, with the OSA syndrome were randomized to AT (n=226) or WWSC (n= 227). Information for wheezing characteristics at baseline was available for 216 children in the AT and 216 in the WWSC. Baseline characteristics per study group (any wheezing vs no wheezing) are shown on Table 1. Children in the “any wheezing” group were predominantly black and had more allergic rhinitis, eczema, second-hand smoke exposure, more siblings and sibling with asthma than the children in the no wheezing group. In contrast the any wheezing group had lower maternal education and family income than the no wheezing group. Nearly half the participants in both groups were overweight or obese, and the AHI was similar between groups.
At baseline, wheezing characteristics were similar between AT and WWSC (Table 2a). However, at the 7-month follow-up the AT arm had significantly less wheezing (Table 2b). Upon dichotomization of the wheezing variable between any vs. no wheezing, no difference by treatment arms was present at baseline. However, children in the AT arm had significatively less “any wheezing” than those in the WWSC arm (22.4% vs. 43.8%, p=0.00001) at follow-up, (Figure 1). Results were similar when the three different severities of wheezing groups were analyzed according to the treatment arms (data not shown).
Importantly, the multivariate analysis of “any wheezing” vs. “no wheezing” at follow-up as a dependent variable, showed that treatment arm was not associated with ‘any wheezing”. Only paternal asthma. maternal education and BMI z-score were significantly associated with “any wheezing” (Table 3). Using the three groups of wheezing severities as dependent variable, the results were similar (data not shown).