Association of antibiotics use in preschool age with atopic and allergic skin diseases in young adulthood: a population-based retrospective cohort study

BACKGROUND: Overuse and misuse of antibiotics is a public health problem in low-income and middle-income countries. Although the association of antibiotics with atopic and allergic diseases has been established, most studies focused on prenatal exposure and the occurrence of disease in infants or young children. OBJECTIVE: To investigate the association of preschool use of antibiotics with atopic and allergic skin diseases in young adulthood. DESIGN: Population-based retrospective cohort. SETTING AND PARTICIPANTS: The first-year college students (n=20 123) from five universities were investigated. The sampled universities are located in Changsha, Wuhan, Xiamen, Urumqi and Hohhot, respectively. METHODS: We conducted a dermatological field examination and a questionnaire survey inquiring the participants about the frequency of upper respiratory tract infection (URTI) and the preschool antibiotics use (prior to 7 years old). The two-level probit model was used to estimate the associations, and adjusted risk ratio (aRR) and 95% CI were presented as the effect size. RESULTS: A total of 20 123 participants with complete information was included in the final analysis. The frequent antibiotics use intravenously (aRR 1.36, 95% CI 1.14 to 1.62) and orally (aRR 1.18, 95% CI 1.01 to 1.38) prior to 7 years old was significantly associated with atopic dermatitis in young adulthood. Similar trends could be observed in allergic skin diseases among those who use antibiotics orally and intravenously, with RRs of 1.16 (95% CI 1.01 to 1.34) and 1.33 (95% CI 1.13 to 1.57), respectively. CONCLUSIONS: Preschool URTI and antibiotics use significantly increases the risk of atopic and allergic skin diseases in young adulthood.