Atopic march in a primary care clinic

Introduction: the prevalence of atopic diseases in childhood has increased in recent years. The aim of this study was to describe the epidemiology of atopic diseases in a primary care paediatrics clinic. Material and methods: cross-sectional and descriptive study in the children aged 0 to 14 years of a primary care paediatrics caseload (624 children). We collected information on different variables related to atopic diseases. The data were analysed with the software IBM SPSS Statistics version 25. The assessed the association between variables using the chi-square test (considered statistically significant if p <0.05). Results: Fifty-one percent of the sample had at least one of the atopic diseases. The cumulative prevalence of atopic dermatitis, food allergy, allergic rhinitis and asthma was 27.2%, 3%, 11.7%, and 33%, respectively. Out of all children with atopic dermatitis, 48.8% also had asthma. Of the children with food allergy, 47.4% also developed asthma. Of the patients with allergic rhinitis, 57.5% also presented asthma. We found a statistically significant association between the diagnosis of any of these atopic diseases and a parental history of atopy (p <0.05). Conclusions: atopic diseases are among the most prevalent disorders encountered in paediatric primary care. There is a strong association between different atopic diseases. A positive family history was significantly associated with the presence of atopic diseases in the paediatric caseload under study.