Effects of beclomethasone and factors related to asthma on the growth of prepubertal children

Few studies on the concomitant effects of beclomethasone dipropionate and asthma-related factors on the growth of prepubertal asthmatic children have been published to date. In this prospective long-term ‘real-life’ cohort study we recruited 82 prepubertal steroid-naïve asthmatic patients aged 3 + years, excluding those with birth weight lower than 2500 g, malnutrition, and other concurrent chronic diseases. Height/age and weight/age Z scores were calculated every three months. Random effects multivariate longitudinal data analysis was used to adjust height/age and weight/age Z scores with independent variables. Among the studied patients, 63.4% were male, aged 4.7 ± 1.5 years, 68.3% suffered from severe persistent asthma and had normal values for height/age and weight/age Z scores at enrolment. They were followed for 5.2 years (range 2.3–6.1) and used a mean daily beclomethasone dipropionate dose of 351.8 mcg (range 137.3–1140.0). Height/age and weight/age Z scores were not affected by either duration of treatment or doses of beclomethasone dipropionate up to 500 mcg, 750 mcg and higher than 750 mcg (p-values > 0.17). The multivariate analysis final model showed that severe persistent asthma was associated to lower height for age Z score (p = 0.04), whereas hospitalizations because of acute asthma (before and during follow-up) were associated (p = 0.02) to lower weight for age Z score. Growth parameters were not affected by the use of beclomethasone dipropionate.