title: Epidemiology of asthma: risk factors for development.
abstract: This comprehensive review of the recent literature was undertaken to determine the current state of knowledge of the risk factors involved in the development of asthma in order to focus investigations in a proposed new longitudinal birth cohort study. The origins of asthma appear to lie in the prenatal and early postnatal period, and renewed investigations in this period with long-term close follow-up and objective phenotypic characterization will help to unravel the role of the multiple putative environmental factors in the development of asthma. It is only after understanding these effects that one can hope to design rational prevention studies for asthma.
authors.affiliation: Hospital for Sick Children, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
authors.forename: Padmaja
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Subbarao
authors.forename: Allan
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Becker
authors.forename: Jeffrey R
authors.initials: JR
authors.lastname: Brook
authors.forename: Denise
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Daley
authors.forename: Piush J
authors.initials: PJ
authors.lastname: Mandhane
authors.forename: Gregory E
authors.initials: GE
authors.lastname: Miller
authors.forename: Stuart E
authors.initials: SE
authors.lastname: Turvey
authors.forename: Malcolm R
authors.initials: MR
authors.lastname: Sears