Asthma and lower airway diseaseEarly growth characteristics and the risk of reduced lung function and asthma: A meta-analysis of 25,000 children
Section snippets
Data sources
European population–based birth and mother-child cohorts participated if they included children born between 1989 and 2011, had information available on at least gestational age and weight at birth and lung function measurements in childhood (until age 18 years), and were willing and able to exchange original data.4 We identified 50 European cohorts selected from existing collaborations on childhood health or asthma-related outcomes (www.chicosproject.eu, www.birthcohortsenrieco.net, //www.ga2len.org
Subjects' characteristics
Information about the main characteristics of the cohorts are given in Table I. Detailed information about determinants, outcomes, and covariates is given in Tables E1 to E5. Of all participants, 8.2% (n = 2053) were born preterm (<37 weeks of gestational age), and 4.8% (n = 1191) were born with a low birth weight (<2500 g). The mean age at which spirometric assessments were performed was 8.5 years (range, 3.9-19.1 years). The proportion of children aged 11 years or older was 11.9% (n = 2972).
Early growth measures and lung function outcomes
Discussion
In this meta-analysis of individual participant data of 24,938 children from 24 birth cohorts, we observed that lower gestational age, smaller size at birth, and greater infant weight gain were all associated with lower childhood FEV1. The positive associations of birth weight and infant weight gain with FVC were larger than the positive associations of birth weight and infant weight gain with FEV1. This combination resulted in associations of higher birth weight and infant weight gain with
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Disclosure of potential conflict of interest: I. Anessi-Maesano has received a grant from the FP7 MeDALL project (Mechanisms of the Development of ALLergy, FP7 no. 261357) and has board memberships with the European Respiratory Journal, Clinical and Experimental Allergy, the International Journal of Tuberculosis and Lung Disease, BMC Public Health, the European Respiratory Review, Multidisciplinary Respiratory Medicine, Therapeutic Advances in Respiratory Disease, Multidisciplinary Review Frontiers in Medicine, and La lettre du pneumologue. S. H. Arshad has received grants from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the Medical Research Council and has consultant arrangements with Merck & Co. U. Frey and A. Schmidt have received grants from the Swiss National Science Foundation. A. J. Henderson has received grants from the Medical Research Council and the Wellcome Trust. H. M. Inskip has received grants from the UK Medical Research Council, the British Heart Foundation, Asthma Research UK, the British Lung Foundation, the Food Standards Agency, and the Dunhill Medical Trust; is deputy chair of a grant-funding board for the UK Medical Research Council; and has her employment funded by the Medical Research Council. S. Lau has received grants from the German Research Foundation, Allergopharma, and Symbiopharma and has consultant arrangements with Merck. K. C. Pike has received grants from the Food Standards Agency and the British Lung Foundation. The rest of the authors declare that they have no relevant conflicts of interest.