EDITOR,—David P Strachan and colleagues' large prospective cohort study shows that recurrence of wheezing after prolonged remission during late adolescence was strongly associated with atopy and cigarette smoking.1 We believe that it is important to distinguish wheezy bronchitis from asthma in childhood since the prognosis differs considerably between these conditions.

We have reported a 25 year follow up of three groups of children who were originally diagnosed in 1964 as having asthma, wheeze in the presence of upper respiratory infection (wheezy bronchitis), …