In Utero And Perinatal Factors May Influence Asthma Risk in Children
There are many people who want to blame genetics for much of today’s chronic diseases, but I firmly believe that environment is the bigger player. As more and more studies come out implicating factors at the beginning of life in health, I feel confident that my viewpoint will become even more cemented.
Allergy 2001;56:491-497 Complications during pregnancy or delivery, illness during the first week of life and low birthweight appear to be associated with an increased risk of childhood asthma. To establish whether there is a link between asthma and events in pregnancy and early life, Dr. Isabella Annesi-Maesano from INSERM in Villejuif, France and colleagues collected data on 4065 children of 2583 mothers from the National Child Development Stud. The children, who were born in 1958, were followed into adulthood and were last interviewed in 1991, according to the report in the June issue of Allergy. Childhood asthma developed in 10.1% of the cohort. Overall, asthma was more common among children with mothers who had complications during pregnancy. The researchers also found higher rates of asthma in subjects with illness or health complications during the first week of life and birthweights below 2.5 kg. Early or threatened labor and the malposition or malpresentation of the fetus were significantly related to the development of childhood asthma, Dr. Annesi-Maesano’s team reports. “These findings among the offspring of a nationally representative birth cohort obtained after controlling for potential confounders provide further epidemiologic evidence that the risk of developing childhood asthma may be influenced to some extent by events in pregnancy and delivery,” Dr. Annesi-Maesano and colleagues conclude.