Asthma Control in Pregnancy Linked to Asthma Risk in Offspring

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MedWire News: Uncontrolled, moderate-to-severe asthma in pregnancy is associated with an increased risk for asthma in offspring, researchers have found.

“Although many studies have investigated the relationship between maternal asthma status in pregnancy and child-related outcomes manifesting themselves soon after birth, to the best of our knowledge, no study has specifically investigated whether or not the lack of maternal asthma control during pregnancy would result in an increased risk for childhood asthma,” explain Lucie Blais (University of Montreal, Quebec, Canada) and team.

To address this, the researchers studied 8226 children born to 8226 asthmatic mothers in Canada between 1990 and 2002.

All the mothers completed questionnaires on maternal, paternal, and siblings’ health, lifestyle habits, environment and child’s health. Maternal asthma during pregnancy was measured with validated indexes based on the use of medications and acute care for asthma. These were defined as mild controlled, mild uncontrolled, moderate-to-severe controlled and moderate-to-severe uncontrolled.

Children were followed up until the age of 10 years or 2002, whichever came first. During this time, 2681 (32.6%) children developed asthma, defined as at least one diagnosis of asthma and a prescription for an asthma medication recorded within a 2-year period.

After accounting for confounding variables, the researchers found that children born to women who had moderate-to-severe uncontrolled asthma during pregnancy were 1.27 times more likely to develop the respiratory condition than those with mothers who had mild controlled asthma during pregnancy.

There was no significant increased asthma risk for children of mothers who had mild uncontrolled asthma and moderate-to-severe controlled asthma during pregnancy, compared with children born to mothers with mild controlled asthma, notes the team.

“The present study showed a statistically significant relationship between the lack of control and increased severity of maternal asthma during pregnancy and the incidence of asthma in the offspring,” Blais and team conclude in the European Respiratory Journal.