Patel, Swatee P., Rodriguez, Alina, Little, Mark P., Elliott, Paul, Pekkanen, Juha, Hartikainen, Anna-Liisa, Pouta, Anneli, Laitinen, Jaana, Harju, Terttu, Canoy, Dexter and Järvelin, Marjo-Riitta (2011) Associations between pre-pregnancy obesity and asthma symptoms in adolescents. Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, 66 (9). pp. 809-814. ISSN 0143-005X (Print), 1470-2738 (Online) (doi:10.1136/jech.2011.133777)

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Abstract

Background:
The high prevalence of children's asthma symptoms, worldwide, is unexplained. We examined the relation between maternal pre-pregnancy weight and body mass index (BMI), and asthma symptoms in adolescents.

Methods:
Data from 6945 adolescents born within the Northern Finland Birth Cohort 1986 were used. Prospective antenatal and birth outcome data, including maternal pre-pregnancy weight and BMI, and asthma symptoms in adolescent offspring at age 15–16 years, were employed. Logistic regression analyses were performed to examine the associations between relevant prenatal factors and asthma symptoms during adolescence.

Results:
Current wheeze (within the past year) was reported by 10.6% of adolescents, and physician-diagnosed asthma by 6.0%. High maternal pre-pregnancy BMI was a significant predictor of wheeze in the adolescents (increase per kilogram per square metre unit; 2.7%, 95% CI 0.9 to 4.4 for ever wheeze; 3.5%, 95% CI 1.3 to 5.8 for current wheeze), and adjusting for potential confounders further increased the risk (2.8%, 95% CI 0.5 to 5.1; 4.7%, 95% CI 1.9 to 7.7, respectively). High maternal pre-pregnancy weight, in the top tertile, also significantly increased the odds of current wheeze in the adolescent by 20% (95% CI 4 to 39), and adjusting for potential confounders further increased the risk (OR=1.52, 95% CI 1.19 to 1.95). Results were similar for current asthma. Furthermore, these significant associations were observed only among adolescents without parental history of atopy but not among those with parental history of atopy.

Conclusions:
The association demonstrated here between maternal pre-pregnancy overweight and obesity, and asthma symptoms in adolescents suggests that increase in asthma may be partly related to the rapid rise in obesity in recent years.

Item Type:	Article
Additional Information:	[1] Published Online First: 15 August 2011. [2] Published in print: September 2012. [3] Published as: Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, (2012), Vol. 66, (9), pp. 809-814. [4] Additional tables are published online only. To view these files please visit the journal online (http://jech.bmj.com/content/66/9.toc). [5] This article is freely available under the BMJ Open Access scheme and is covered by the terms and conditions of the BMJ Group's exclusive licence agreement, and may be reused by both authors and third parties, in accordance with the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial 3.0 Unported licence. Under the CC licence, users are free to share (copy, distribute and transmit) and adapt (make a translation or derivative work) the contribution under the following conditions (read full legal code): Attribution. Users must attribute the contribution in the manner specified by the author or licensor (but not in any way that suggests that they or their use of the contribution is endorsed by the author or licensor). Non-commercial. Users may not use this contribution for commercial purposes.
Uncontrolled Keywords:	high prevalence, children's asthma symptoms, maternal pre-pregnancy weight, body mass index (BMI), adolescents obesity
Subjects:	R Medicine > R Medicine (General)
Pre-2014 Departments:	School of Health & Social Care School of Health & Social Care > Department of Social Work & Health Development
Related URLs:	Publisher Organisation
Last Modified:	15 Oct 2016 18:03
URI:	http://gala.gre.ac.uk/id/eprint/7476

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