Association between asthma and allergic diseases and circadian preference (chronotype) of the adolescents

Introduction: Although asthma/allergic diseases are known to follow circadian rhythmicity, whether these are associated with individual circadian preference/chronotype (CT) is not known. Objective: To estimate the association between allergic responses and chronotype among adolescents. Methods: Among 1684 adolescents (58% male) aged between 13 and 14 years, recruited from 23 randomly selected schools of 16 districts of West Bengal (India), prevalence of asthma, wheeze, rhinitis, rhinoconjunctivitis, and eczema were assessed using the English-back Bengali version of the International Study on Asthma and Allergies in Childhood (ISAAC) questionnaire modules. Chronotypes were determined using a validated Bengali-translated version of the reduced Morningness-Eveningness Questionnaire (rMEQ). Results: Compared to the non-asthmatics, asthmatics were more prone to be evening-type (8% vs. 18%) and neither-type (48% vs. 59%) but not morning-type (44% vs. 23%) (chi-squared p Conclusion: This is the first study to demonstrate the chronotype patterns differ significantly between adolescents with or without allergic diseases. However, the bidirectional causal-effects of this association also needs further investigation.