Babies who are born prematurely are more likely to develop asthma.
According to a new report from the World Health Organization (WHO), babies that are born before 37 weeks are much more likely to develop childhood asthma than their full-term counterparts. The results were published this week in the medical journal PLoS Medicine.
Data from almost 2Â million children from around the world was studied as a part of this research. The WHO used information on patients born since the 1990s from 30 separate medical studies, which came from six continents. The majority of cases that were looked at came from European countries.
Premature babies generally suffer from breathing issues early on in life because their lungs are immature and have not been given time to fully develop. While researchers were looking at modern babies, they also went through records on preterm children born between the 1960s and 1980s and found many of them had also developed asthma during their lives.
In the report, researchers say it is unclear whether advances in medical care have affected the long-term risk of developing asthma, but since an increasing number of premature babies survive, it is becoming a “significant health condition.” The study revealed that while 8 percent of full-term children develop asthma young, it affects 14 percent of pre-term kids.
In the details of the study, researchers reveal that children who are born before 37 weeks are 50 percent more likely to develop asthma and those born before two months were three times more likely than children who are born on time.
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