The risk for developing asthma is higher for children with pregnant mothers who are obese in comparison to mothers of normal weight, a study in Sweden has found, Fox News reports.
The study, which was conducted by both Australian institutes and Umea University in Sweden, was published in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology.
Researchers studied over 129,000 mothers in Stockholm and their 189,000 children. They found that mothers who were very obese, or with a body mass index of 35 and over, had a 61 percent increased risk of their children developing asthma by the time they were between 8 and 10 years of age.
"We found that there was a clear increased risk of childhood asthma, medication use and hospitalization with increasing degree of obesity and overweight in mothers in early pregnancy," said lead author Adrian Lowe from the Murdoch Childrens Research Institute and University of Melbourne, according to Fox News.
Maternal obesity increases the child's risk of obesity, which influences the child’s immune system and how it reacts toward allergies, Lowe said.
“Obese mothers had a 41 percent increase in the odds compared to normal weight mothers ... those who were a little overweight had 18 percent increased chance," Lowe told Reuters by telephone.
"The results suggest that campaigns to reduce obesity prior to conception may have a beneficial effect on childhood asthma," Lowe said, Fox News reports.
