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Home> Paediatrics> Paediatric respiratory epidemiology> Early life risk factors for childhood asthma: evidence from birth cohort studies II (E-communication Session) This E-communication will be presented on Tuesday 7.10.2008, 10:45-12:45, London 2. Chairs: Dr. Catarina Almqvist Malmros, Dr. Thomas Frischer We analysed the incidence of respiratory and atopic symptoms in the whole paediatric population (3-14 years-old) of the district of Viadana (Mantua, Northern Italy), who were born to Italian and immigrant parents. After taking into account several potential and known confounders (including the family history of the studied disease, exposure to passive smoking and to air pollutants), we found that children of immigrants tended to have a lower incidence of wheezing and eczema symptoms than Italian children, but a greater incidence of allergic rhinitis. Moreover, we found that the family history of chronic bronchitis or emphysema was strongly associated with persistent cough or phlegm. BACKGROUND Epidemiologic studies on immigration to Italy are scanty. It is well recognized that children born in a "low atopy " country tend to develop the atopic disease patterns of their host country when they migrate to a "high atopy " country (1). This was also shown for migrant children to Italy (2). Moreover, children of immigrants to Italy were reported to have a greater prevalence of persistent cough or phlegm (2), although the authors concluded that factors other than having foreigner parents, like the exposure t