Abstract
Background
Asthma is one of the most common chronic diseases in children. Inflammatory indicators seem to serve as efficient indicators for evaluating and targeting therapies for asthma, however there is a lack of airway inflammation markers in children.
Objective
This study was developed to explore the association between inflammatory biomarkers derived from a complete blood count (CBC) and current asthma prevalence among American children and adolescents helping the diagnosis and management of asthma in this population.
Methods
This cross-sectional analysis based on data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) evaluated 10,938 adolescents and children from the USA. Analyzed CBC-derived inflammatory biomarkers calculated for all participants included the platelet-to-lymphocyte ratio (PLR), neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR), monocyte-to-lymphocyte ratio (MLR), systemic inflammatory response index (SIRI), and systemic immune inflammation index (SII). Analyses were conducted through multiple logistic regression and restricted cubic spline analyses.
Results
Among analyzed subjects, 10.6% exhibited current asthma (56.6% male, 43.4% female). Relative to subjects in the lowest quartile, those in the highest and second highest quartiles for NLR (Q3: OR = 1.33 [1.09–1.61], P = 0.004; Q4: OR = 1.28 [1.05–1.57], P = 0.016), SIRI (Q3:OR = 1.37[1.13–1.65], P = 0.001; Q4:OR = 1.23[1.02–1.5], P = 0.035), and SII (Q3: OR = 1.21[1-1.47], P = 0.045; Q4:OR = 1.24[1.02–1.5], P = 0.027), presented with a greater risk of current asthma following adjustment for confounding factors.
Conclusion
These results suggest that inflammatory biomarkers which can be computed from CBC results (NLR, SIRI, SII) are all associated with a greater risk of current asthma among American adolescents and children.