Early lung disease linked to asthma

Infants who experience a lung disease shortly after birth have a high risk of getting asthma in later childhood. They point out that this may explain the known link between caesarean delivery and asthma.Researchers from the Cambridge University, reviewed the information obtained from Scottish Morbidity Records. They extracted data on infants delivered between 37 and 43 weeks of pregnancy between 1992 and 1995. This information was linked to hospital admissions with a diagnosis of asthma between 1992 and 2000.

The study group included 173,319 births, among which 2230 infants were diagnosed with early breathing problems. Infants who experienced lung problems at birth were at an increased risk of being hospitalised for asthma. The risk was higher for babies delivered by caesarean section rather than those delivered normally.This association was not influenced by maternal age, induction of labour, the child's birth weight or gender.

Previous studies have found increased risks of asthma among children delivered by caesarean section, but the relationship was relatively weak, and the studies lacked information on complications affecting the newborn.
The findings from the current study suggest that the association between caesarean delivery and later asthma may be mediated by early lung disease.

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