Background:

the recurrent wheeze is the presence of the three or more episodes of wheeze and is the main manifestation of asthma in children under five years old.

Objective:

to determine the atopic factors associated with recurrent wheeze in children less than five years.

Methods:

a case-control study was made in Guáimaro, Camagüey province, Cuba from June 2015 to January 2017. The cases were 114 children under five years old with diagnostic of recurrent wheeze and the same number of children without diagnostic of recurrent wheeze were the controls. The information was obtained through a questionnaire applied to parents of children.

Results:

the diagnosis of allergic dermatitis (OR=6,1, IC95%3,5-10,3), history of atopic disease in mother o father (OR=3,7IC95% 2,5-5,4), food allergy (OR 3,6IC95% 2,2-5,9), cutaneous atopic stigma (OR 2,9 IC95% 1,8-4,1), eosinophilia > 4 % (OR=2,8IC95%1,8-4,1) and allergic march (OR=8,4IC95% 4,7-14,3) showed significant associations with recurrent wheeze. The presence of two atopic factors increased in 8 times the risk of recurrent wheeze (OR=8,3; IC95% 5,4-12,2), three to four factors elevated the possibility in more than 12 times (OR=12,2; IC95% 7,6-19,2) and five o- more increased the risk almost 20 times (OR=19,8; IC95% 10,5-36,8).

Conclusions:

the risk factors for recurrent wheeze were the diagnosis of allergic dermatitis, family history of atopic disease, food allergy, cutaneous atopic stigma, eosinophilia higher than 4% and allergic march. The risk of recurrent wheeze increased proportionally to the number of the atopic factors.

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