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Rapid weight gain in early childhood linked with asthma in adolescents, teens
Infants who gain weight rapidly during the first 3 months of life are at an increased risk for developing asthma during different stages of childhood, according to recent study results.
“Our results suggest positive associations of rapid weight growth during early childhood and mid-childhood with current asthma, higher weight growth during early childhood with increased bronchial responsiveness or reversibility, and high weight growth in childhood with higher overall lung volumes but increased measures of obstruction in childhood,” Agnes Sonnenschein-van der Voort, MSc, PhD, and colleagues wrote.
Agnes Sonnenschein-van der Voort
In a population-based, prospective cohort study, researchers recruited 15,247 pregnant women from three health districts in the United Kingdom with an expected delivery date between April 1, 1991 and Dec. 31, 1992. Height and weight measurements were available to researchers from birth to age 10 years for the 9,723 children included in the study.
Fast weight gain during the first 3 months of childhood was consistently linked with asthma at age 8 years (OR=1.10; 95% CI, 1.02-1.19) and age 17 years (OR=1.18; 95% CI, 1.01-1.37).
High weight gain in children during the first 3 months (OR=1.11; 95% CI, 1.03-1.20) and between 3 and 12 months (OR=1.09; 95% CI, 1-1.19) was linked with an increased risk for bronchial responsiveness to methacholine at 8 years.
“Our results suggest that growth in the first months after birth is the most important in the association with asthma and lung function because most rapid developmental and growth changes occur during this time,” the researchers wrote.
Disclosures: Sonnenschein-van der Voort reports receiving research support from the European Respiratory Society Fellowship and the Ter Meulen Fund, Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences. See the study for a full list of the researchers’ financial disclosures.