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Background: The etiology of herniated intervertebral disc (HIVD) disease in children and adolescents is multifactorial and not merely related to disc degeneration. Therefore, in the present study, we investigated the relationship between young asthma patients and the risk of early HIVD disease in a population under 30 years of age.Methods: Data from the National Health Insurance Research Database (NHIRD) of Taiwan were used to conduct a retrospective longitudinal cohort study. The study cohort comprised 23,470 patients with asthma (asthma group) and 23,470 patients without asthma (non-asthma group), who were selected through frequency matching on the basis of sex, age, and the index year. The study patients were followed until HIVD disease occurrence, withdrawal from the National Health Insurance program, or 31 December 2013. Cox proportional hazards regression analysis was conducted to assess the risk of HIVD disease in the asthma group after adjustment for sex, age, and comorbidities.Results: After adjustment for sex, age, and comorbidities, the asthma group had a 1.69-fold (95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.29-2.23) higher risk of HIVD disease than did the non-asthma group. In addition, the asthma group had a higher risk of cervical and lumbar HIVD diseases than did the non-asthma group (adjusted hazard ratio [HR] = 2.38; 95% CI = 1.25-4.57 and adjusted HR = 1.56; 95% CI = 1.15-2.12, respectively).Conclusions: Young patients with asthma are at a significantly higher risk of early cervical or lumbar HIVD disease. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Type 1 diabetes (T1D) is one of the most common chronic diseases of childhood. Whether neonatal hyperbilirubinaemia increases the risk of T1D remains unclear. Aim: To estimate the association between neonatal hyperbilirubinaemia and phototherapy and the risk of T1D using a large nationwide population-based cohort. Methods: This retrospective study was conducted using data from the National Health Insurance Research Database in Taiwan from 2001 until 2005. Altogether, 23,784 neonates aged <30 days diagnosed with hyperbilirubinaemia and 47,568 neonates without hyperbilirubinaemia were enrolled and frequency-matched to the hyperbilirubinaemia group by gender, age, parental occupation and urbanisation. Cox regression analysis was performed to estimate hazard ratios (HRs) and 95% confidence intervals (CI). Results: Of the 71,352 neonates included, those with hyperbilirubinaemia had a higher incidence of T1D (4.76 vs 2.68 per 10,000 person-years, p < 0.001) and an earlier mean age at onset of T1D [4.13 (2.80) vs 5.80 (2.67) years, p < 0.001] than those without hyperbilirubinaemia. After adjusting for confounding factors in multivariable analysis, the neonates with hyperbilirubinaemia had a 66% increased risk of developing T1D (HR 1.66, 95% CI 1.26–2.18). Girls had a 1.41-fold (HR 1.41, 95% CI 1.10–1.82) greater risk of T1D than boys. Additionally, neonates with a history of perinatal complications (HR 1.66, 95% CI 0.99–2.80) and neonatal infections (HR 2.13, 95% CI 1.45–3.15) had an increased subsequent risk of T1D. Conclusions: The results suggest that neonatal hyperbilirubinaemia is associated with a subsequently increased risk of childhood-onset T1D. Abbreviations: T1D, type 1 diabetes; CI, confidence interval; NHI, national health insurance; NHIA, National Health Insurance Administration; NHIRD, National Health Insurance Research Database; ICD-9-CM, International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision, Clinical Modification; G6PD, glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase; LBW, low birthweight; HRs, hazard ratios. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: The association between asthma and benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) has rarely been explored. We investigated whether male asthmatic patients had an increased risk of BPH by conducting this retrospective nationwide population-based study.Methods: We utilized data derived from the National Health Insurance Research Database (NHIRD) in Taiwan. A total of 9778 male patients aged >40 years who were newly diagnosed with asthma between 2000 and 2006 were included in the asthma group. Male enrollees without asthma were selected as the non-asthma group from the same database. Both the groups were followed up until the end of 2013. We performed Cox proportional hazard regression analysis to estimate the risk of BPH and transurethral resection of the prostate (TURP) in the male patients with asthma compared with that in those without asthma.Results: The risk of BPH and TURP in the asthma group was 1.40-fold (95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.30-1.42) and 1.30-fold (95% CI= 1.31-1.50) higher than that in the non-asthma group, respectively, after adjusting for comorbidities, relevant medications and number of annual outpatient visits.Conclusions: The male patients with asthma were found to have a higher risk of BPH than did those without asthma. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: The objective of this study was to determine whether a new diagnosis of asthma is associated with a later diagnosis of herpes zoster (HZ) in a nationwide, retrospective, non-age limited, population-based cohort.Methods: We used data from the National Health Insurance Research Database in Taiwan. The asthma group consisted of all 40 069 patients in the database with newly diagnosed asthma and using asthma medications from 2000 through 2005. The nonasthma group comprised 40 069 age- and sex-matched patients without any asthma diagnosis. Cox proportional hazards regression analysis was applied to calculate the hazard ratio of HZ in the patients with asthma relative to those without asthma.Results: During a mean follow-up period of 8.77 years, the risk of HZ was 1.48-fold higher in the asthma group compared with that in the nonasthma group after adjustment for sex, age, comorbidities, inhaled and systemic corticosteroid use, and annual outpatient department visits to dermatologists. Additional stratified analyses revealed that the risk of HZ was significantly higher in patients of both sexes and those aged older than 21 years.Conclusions: Newly diagnosed adult patients with asthma have a significantly higher risk of developing HZ than do those without asthma. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]