Do children outgrow eye allergies? A new study presented this week at AAO 2024, the 128th annual meeting of the American Academy of Ophthalmology, suggests that while most allergies with onset in childhood improve with age and resolve by puberty, in some patients these allergies may persist into adulthood. Even worse, patients with childhood-onset allergies persisting into adulthood tend to suffer more eye complications later in life compared with people who develop eye allergies as adults.
Researchers at the L.V. Prasad Eye Institute in Hyderabad, India, reviewed hospital records for 5,030 adults aged 21 and older diagnosed with eye allergies to understand trends of allergy in adulthood. Of these patients, 11 percent developed eye allergies in childhood and 89 percent developed allergies as adults.
“Even though the childhood-onset group made up a smaller portion of the study population, they showed significantly higher rates of complications and ocular co-morbidities compared to the adult-onset group,” said researcher Pragnya Donthineni, MD, of L.V. Prasad Eye Institute. “This highlights the importance of aggressive management of severe allergies in childhood, especially when the condition persists beyond puberty, contrary to its typically expected natural course of improving after this age.”
Vernal keratoconjunctivitis was the most common allergy type for both groups, but those who developed eye allergies in childhood experienced a higher rate of limbal involvement compared to adult-onset allergies (45 percent vs. 16 percent). The childhood onset group also had a higher rate of other ocular complications compared with the adult onset group (P < .0001), including keratoconus (14 percent), limbal stem cell deficiency (7.74 percent) and steroid-induced glaucoma (6.66 percent).
Rhinitis and asthma were the common systemic allergies in both groups. They also found that male gender predominated in the childhood-onset group, but this gender predilection was not seen in the adult-onset group.
“Our study significantly adds to our understanding of adult allegies. These findings, if explored further, can enhance our understanding of disease processes across different age groups,” Dr. Basu said. “Moreover, the results underscore the importance of considering age on onset in evaluating and treating ocular allergies preventing long-term complications.”
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