This article is more than 5 years old. Information may no longer be current.
Preterm infants at increased risk of asthma, wheezing disorders
Click Here to Manage Email Alerts
The risk of asthma is increased in infants born very preterm, , according to recent study findings published in PLOS Medicine.
“This work provides compelling evidence that preterm birth is an important early life risk factor for wheezing disorders in childhood,” the researchers wrote. “Given the increasing incidence of both entities and their potentially lifelong consequences, there is an urgent need to identify the underlying mechanisms and explore the potential for preventive and therapeutic approaches.”
Jasper V. Been, MD, MPH, PhD, of the department of pediatrics at Maastricht University Medical Center in the Netherlands, and colleagues evaluated 30 studies that examined the association between preterm birth and asthma /wheezing disorders among more than 1.5 million children.
Overall, 13.7% of preterm infants participating in the 30 studies developed asthma/wheezing disorders during childhood compared with 8.3% of term infants. Infants born preterm were found to have 1.71 times increased risk of a wheezing disorder during childhood than full-term infants. Conversely, children born extremely preterm were three times at increased risk to develop asthma or a wheezing disorder during childhood than full-term infants.
Maternal smoking and other factors also increased the risk for preterm infants to develop asthma or a wheezing disorder by 1.46 times compared with full-term infants.“The accuracy of these findings may be affected, however, by residual confounding,” the researchers wrote. “That is, preterm children may share other, unknown characteristics that increase their risk of developing asthma/wheezing disorders. Moreover, the generalizability of these findings is limited by the lack of data from low- and middle-income countries.”
However, according to the researchers, given the projected global increases in children who survive preterm births, these findings highlight the need for additional research into the mechanisms underlying the association between preterm birth and asthma/wheezing disorders, including the need to help develop appropriate preventative and therapeutic measures.
Disclosure: See the study for a full list of disclosures.
Click Here to Manage Email Alerts