Exposure to harmful factors in early childhood could play a bigger-than-expected role in shaping respiratory problems in adult life, a study presented Sunday said. Its authors said the findings should prompt doctors to look beyond adult smoking as the catch-all cause for shortness of breath and other respiratory problems.
The researchers, led by Cecilie Svanes of the Haukeland University Hospital in Bergen, Norway, trawled through a database of 15,500 Europeans aged 20 to 55 whose health had been monitored in two previous long-term studies.
Nearly 8,500 of these volunteers had undergone two standard tests of lung capacity — a big puff of air, exhaled into a tube in one second — with an interval of around nine years between each measurement.
Svanes' team compared this data with known information about the individuals' background. Their findings were showcased at an annual meeting on Sunday of the European Respiratory Society (ERS) in this southern Germany city.
Individuals who had asthmatic parents or who developed asthma before the age of 10; or developed a lower respiratory tract infection before the age of five; or whose mothers smoked in pregnancy, were prone to a marked decline in lung function later in life.
The presence of any of these childhood factors led to a reduction in lung capacity that was similar to the impact of smoking 20 cigarettes a day in adult life, the study found.
Among people who were exposed to at least three of the factors, the lung deficit damage was three times greater than that attributable to smoking.
The researchers believe this could be only part of the picture. There could be other factors experienced in childhood that damage lung function in adulthood.
"Since… the most widespread adverse risk factor is maternal smoking, there is a need for better management of pregnant women and infants" in combatting exposure to tobacco smoke, an ERS press release quoted them as saying.
