Smoking During Pregnancy Linked To Increased Childhood Asthma Risk

Smoking During Pregnancy

A recent studies revelas that children who were exposed to smoking during pregnancy pose a higher risk of developing asthma. According to epidemiological studies conducted by the Institute of Environmental Medicine at the Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm, Sweden, maternal smoking during pregnancy is involved in the development of asthma in children at school age. The study was published in the American Thoracic Society’s American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine.

Studies on the relationship between maternal smoking and asthma in children have been performed in the past but a clear link whether maternal smoking during pregnancy or postpartum smoking exposure triggers asthma in children was never established. Now researchers in Sweden conducted a study that included more than 21,000 children. Of these, 700 children were exposed to smoking during pregnancy. Information was collected by means of questionnaires completed by parents.

Lead author, Dr.Neuman. MD, of the Institute of Environmental Medicine at the Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm, Sweden, said that these children had an increased risk of developing asthma and wheezing in preschool age. In addition, the study showed that the risk of developing asthma was greater as the number of cigarettes consumed by the mother in the first trimester was higher. Although the study has some limitations, as it was based on questionnaires completed by parents, Dr. Neuman said that these findings highlights the harmful effects of smoking on the respiratory system of the child. Smoking is harmful especially in the first trimester when a woman may not even know she is pregnant. She also stressed that these findings should be an incentive for women to quit smoking especially during pregnancy.

Smoking during Pregnant

Asthma is a respiratory disease characterized by paroxysmal crises of dyspnea (shortness of breath) accompanied by wheezing and cough. It is important to remember that between these bouts of breathlessness respiratory function is normal . The crisis usually end with the appearance of cough and whitish, coin shaped sputum. Asthma can be controlled with bronchodilators (salbutamol), anticholinergic medication ( ipratropium bromide), leukotriene antagonists ( montelukast), mast cell stabilizers ( cromolyn sodium), corticosteroids  and others. Asthma occurs due to a chronic inflammation of the bronchi that is triggered by allergens (pollen) or irritants (cold, for example). Regarding triggers, there are two types of asthma:  intrinsic (non-atopic) asthma and extrinsic (atopic) asthma. Lately, there has been an increase in cases of asthma. According to GINA (Global Strategy for Asthma Management and Prevention), in 2010 there were 300 million people with asthma.