Table 3

Description of the child's childhood medical problems

Parent report n (%)	Control	Betamethasone	χ²(1)	Significance
Parent report n (%)	N=190	N=217	χ²(1)	Significance
Child has medical problems	68 (36)	77 (36)	0.01	0.95
Child has problems with movement	6 (3)	10 (5)	0.56	0.45
Child has been diagnosed with a condition	51 (27)	56 (26)	0.04	0.83
Child is on medication	46 (24)	41 (19)	1.70	0.19
Child ever admitted to hospital	96 (51)	98 (45)	1.17	0.28
Child ever wheezed or had whistling in the chest	56 (30)	66 (30)	0.04	0.84
Of these, child wheezed or had whistling in the chest in the past year	22	31
Has the child ever had asthma	40 (21)	53 (24)	0.65	0.42
In the last year, has the child used any asthma inhalers or medicines	24 (13)	31 (14)	0.24	0.63
Has the child ever had a problem with sneezing or a runny/blocked nose when they did not have a cold	60 (32)	51 (24)	3.33	0.07
Of these, in the last year has this nose problem been accompanied by itchy-watering eyes	35	41
Has the child ever had hay fever	51 (27)	54 (25)	0.20	0.65
Has the child ever taken any regular nasal sprays or medicines	42 (22)	38 (18)	1.35	0.25
Has the child had an itchy rash which was coming and going for at least 6 months	30 (16)	30 (14)	0.31	0.58
Of these, has the child had this itchy rash at any times in the last year	25	24
Of these, has this itchy rash at any time affected: folds of the elbows, behind the knees, in front of the ankles, under the buttocks, around the neck ears or eyes	21	22
Has the child ever had eczema	70 (37)	73 (34)	0.46	0.50
Has your child ever taken any creams or medicines for eczema	65 (34)	70 (32)	0.15	0.70
Reported reasons for admission to hospital
Respiratory infection	20 (11)	15 (7)
Non-respiratory infection	24 (13)	20 (9)
Accidental injury	17 (9)	14 (6)
Surgery	24 (13)	31 (14)
Asthma	1 (1)	6 (3)