STUDY LINKS YOUNGER PARENTS WITH EARLY ASTHMA DIAGNOSIS

A recent analysis of 594 Australian children, undertaken as part of the Childhood Asthma Prevention Study (CAPS), has found those with younger parents were significantly more likely to be diagnosed with asthma at an earlier age.

Dr Guy Marks, Head of Epidemiology at the Woolcock Institute of Medical Research, will present these findings at the Thoracic Society of Australia and New Zealand (TSANZ) conference at the Sydney Convention and Exhibition Centre on Monday 22 March.

Dr Marks explains CAPS is a randomised controlled trial in which two interventions for the primary prevention of asthma are being tested.

This current analysis looked specifically at the effect of these interventions and other risk factors on the time to the first reported diagnosis of asthma, he said.

Our report found the two interventions, house dust mite (HDM) avoidance and control and diet modification and control, had no effect on the age of first diagnosis of asthma in the first three years of life.

Rather, for every one year increase in the age of the mothers and fathers the age of the first diagnosis of asthma was later.

Asthma can not be reliably diagnosed in early life, so the reasons for our findings will require further investigation.