Asthma, Rhinitis, Other Respiratory DiseasesMaternal asthma, infant feeding, and the risk of asthma in childhood☆
Section snippets
Study population
The Western Australian Pregnancy Cohort Study is a prospective birth cohort study that was established between 1989 and 1992 to investigate several hypotheses about antenatal and perinatal antecedents of disease. Details of recruitment and follow-up have been described elsewhere.2, 3 Briefly, a total of 2979 Western Australian children were enrolled by 18 weeks' gestation. At the time of enrolment, parents completed a questionnaire about their own respiratory illness, smoking behavior, and
Population characteristics
The majority of children (89.3%) were breast-fed, with nearly half (48.4%) exclusively breast-fed for less than 4 months. By age 6 years, 17% of the children had current asthma, 22% had wheeze in the last year, and 31% had physician-diagnosed asthma ever. Of the entire cohort, 15% had mothers with current asthma.
Association among maternal asthma, child's asthma, and infant feeding
Maternal asthma status was significantly associated with increased prevalence of current asthma in the child (P < .001). The association between exclusive breast-feeding and asthma was
Discussion
We did not find any evidence that the child's atopy status or maternal asthma status altered the effect of exclusive breast-feeding for 4 months or longer, which protected against current asthma.
There are a number of strengths of the Western Australian Pregnancy Cohort Study. The cohort was representative of the general population and included very preterm infants. The breast-feeding data were collected prospectively, and follow-up included 91% of eligible children at 6 years. We adjusted for a
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Cited by (115)
Asthma in pregnancy – Management, maternal co-morbidities, and long-term health
2022, Best Practice and Research: Clinical Obstetrics and GynaecologyProspective Cohort Study of Breastfeeding and the Risk of Childhood Asthma
2018, Journal of PediatricsCitation Excerpt :Previous studies have also investigated how maternal asthma or parental allergy influences the association between breastfeeding and asthma.34-36 With a longer duration of breastfeeding, Oddy et al found a decreased risk of asthma in children aged 6 years, regardless of whether the mother had asthma.35 Scholtens et al found that breastfeeding was associated with a lower risk of asthma in children aged 8 years, without evidence of effect modification by the family history of allergy.36
Maternal depressive symptoms, maternal asthma, and asthma in school-aged children
2017, Annals of Allergy, Asthma and ImmunologyBreast-Always Best?
2016, Allergy, Immunity and Tolerance in Early Childhood: The First Steps of the Atopic MarchHuman Milk: Its Components and Their Immunobiologic Functions
2015, Mucosal Immunology: Fourth EditionRisk and Protective Factors for the Development of Childhood Asthma
2015, Paediatric Respiratory Reviews
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Reprint requests: Wendy H. Oddy, PhD, Telethon Institute for Child Health Research, PO Box 855, West Perth, Western Australia 6872, Australia.