Association Between Neonatal Urinary Tract Infection and Risk of Childhood Allergic Rhinitis

The current population-based study investigated the onset of neonatal urinary tract infection (UTI) and the associated risks of allergic rhinitis. From 2000 to 2005, 3285 children with neonatal UTI and 13,128 randomly selected controls were enrolled from the National Health Insurance Research Database in Taiwan and frequency matched by gender, urbanization of residential area, parental occupation, and baseline year. We compared the risk of allergic rhinitis between the non-UTI and UTI cohorts by performing multivariable Cox regression analysis. We observed a significant relationship between UTI and allergic rhinitis. This study examined 16,413 patients, among whom 3285 had UTI and 13,128 did not have UTI. The overall incidence rate ratio of allergic rhinitis was 1.41-fold higher in the UTI cohort than in the non-UTI cohort (100.2 vs 70.93 per 1000 person-y). After potential risk factors were adjusted for, the adjusted hazard ratio of allergic rhinitis was 1.32 (95% confidence interval = 1.23-1.41). Regardless of gender, the UTI cohort had a higher risk of allergic rhinitis than that of the non-UTI cohort. The patients with UTI in different follow-up durations were equally susceptible to developing allergic rhinitis compared with those without UTI, especially in follow-up durations shorter than 5 years. Patients with UTI and particular comorbidities such as infections and neonatal jaundice had a significantly increased risk of allergic rhinitis. UTI in newborns is significantly associated with the development of allergic rhinitis in childhood and might be a risk factor for subsequent childhood allergic rhinitis.