2024-09-29 05:31:25
Scientists from Switzerland have presented new findings: Contrary to what has previously been assumed, asthma can occur very early on.
Asthma affects millions of people worldwide. This is an inflammatory disease of the respiratory tract that leads to shortness of breath, coughing, tightness in the chest and wheezing. These symptoms can be particularly stressful for children and limit their quality of life.
As researchers at the University of Basel are currently reporting, signs of later asthma can already appear in the first year of life. In a comprehensive study, the international research team analyzed health data from around 780 infants from various European countries.
The aim was to understand the interaction of various risk factors and to examine their effects on the development of the respiratory system in children. Specifically, they looked at whether the babies were more likely to cough or have wheezing over the course of the week if they were exposed to certain risk factors.
The result: Certain factors could actually cause asthma in the first year of life. According to the study, these included:
If babies are only exposed to one of these risk factors, the risk of the chronic disease is low, according to the research team led by Prof. Dr. Urs Frey. However, the interaction has a negative effect on lung development and significantly increases the risk of asthma. Babies exposed to several of these risk factors at the same time developed asthma between the ages of two and six.
Although the findings cannot currently be used for early diagnosis in individual children, the researchers see potential for the future. “With larger amounts of data and machine learning, it would be entirely conceivable to calculate a risk profile for individual children in the future,” says Frey. Digital health data can now be collected relatively easily using smartphone apps.