Perinatal maternal smoking accounts for 17% of cases of adult asthma
Perinatal maternal smoking accounts
for 17% of cases of adult asthma
Approximately 17% of asthma cases
occurring in adults could be attributed to exposure to maternal smoking in
utero and during childhood, suggesting a Norwegian study presented at the
European Respiratory Society (ERS ).
Some studies have shown that
maternal smoking has an impact in utero, working on the development of fetal
airway, said Trude Dielen the University of Bergen in an oral session.
But little data exist on the
long-term impact, including the risk of respiratory symptoms and asthma in
adulthood.
With his colleagues, the specialist
interviewed 2,819 adults aged 15 to 70 years on the occurrence of respiratory
symptoms and asthma between 1985 and 1996 to 1997. Participants also provided
information on the possible smoking mothers.
In this cohort, 9.5% of respondents
have experienced maternal smoking in utero and 22.8% during their childhood. In
addition, 58.4% were also exposed to smoke from other smokers.
Data analysis indicates that exposure
to maternal smoking in utero triple the risk of asthma and increases the risk
of chronic cough by 1.6 by 1.5 productive cough, dyspnea (shortness of breath)
grade 2 and attacks of dyspnea by 1.2. In contrast, no significant association
was established with wheezing.
The impact of age of exposure to
maternal smoking during childhood appeared less important: only the asthma risk
was doubled, while the link with other respiratory symptoms was not
significant. In contrast, the risk of wheezing was multiplied by 1.4.
"It is difficult to separate
the effects of prenatal and postnatal maternal smoking, but they seem stronger
in utero," said the Norwegian researcher. However, these results confirm
that the incidence of asthma and respiratory symptoms is higher when the mother
smokes during pregnancy and near the child.
The researchers estimated that a
significant proportion of the incidence (number of new cases per year) of
asthma and respiratory symptoms is linked to maternal smoking, giving it 17.3%
of asthma cases, 6.6 % of attacks of dyspnea and 1.9% of dyspnoea grade 2.
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