Children born by caesarean delivery at risk of asthma

[Naveed Yaseen]

Children born by caesarean delivery are at risk of developing asthma if their parents have allergies.

C-section has been thought to be a risk factor for asthma, although the relationship is controversial. Researchers from Netherlands analysed data from 2,917 children to assess the association between caesarean delivery and asthma or allergies at eight years of age.

It was found that 362 (12 per cent) of the children developed asthma at the age of eight years and nine per cent had been delivered by c-section.

Overall, children delivered by c-section were 79 per cent more likely to develop asthma. The association between c-section and asthma was even stronger for children born to one or two allergic parents than for children born to parents without allergies.

The results emphasize the importance of gene-environment interactions on the development of asthma in children.

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