Respiratory Morbidity / Quality of Life
Despite lung function impairment, the prevalence of current asthma
symptoms in adolescents with BPD was not different from that in other
adolescents, although our study was not powered to find differences in
respiratory morbidity. This finding is consistent with that in a recent
review6, and in general, it differs from that
described in adolescents and adults who had BPD in the pre-surfactant
era. At that time, these individuals had greater respiratory morbidity
than did controls without BPD2. The clinical
improvement in adolescents with “new” BPD could be explained by
“catch-up” alveolar growth and airway repair after neonatal injury
because they experienced less structural damage than did those with
“classic” BPD7.
Moreover, the prevalence of current asthma in each group in our study is
comparable with that recorded in Spanish adolescents in the ISAAC Phase
III study (10.6%) and is somewhat lower than that in the world
population (14.1%)38. We would like to emphasize that
according to ISAAC methodology, the current asthma prevalence refers to
the occurrence of wheezing episodes in the previous year. Therefore, the
diagnostic approach of asthma-like symptoms in BPD adolescents is not
the same as that of typical asthma, although there may be overlap
between the 2 conditions.
The scores of the quality of life questionnaire were similar across all
groups, and they were within normal ranges when compared to the
reference scores10. It has been documented that the
quality of life is similar in adolescents who were born very preterm and
those who were born full-term39. In addition, a
negative impact of BPD on quality of life in the early years has been
demonstrated; however, the scores of EP infants with BPD do not seem to
differ from those of healthy controls as they reach school age and
adolescence40.