title: Are early life factors considered when managing respiratory disease? A British Thoracic Society survey of current practice.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  We hypothesised that early life events are not routinely considered by most respiratory specialists.
  
  
  METHODS
  Respiratory Specialists were surveyed via the British Thoracic Society (BTS) on whether they asked patients about birth weight, preterm birth and prenatal and postnatal complications.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Only a small minority (mostly hospital paediatricians) of the 123 who replied asked most respiratory patients about one of more early life factors. Patient recall of the information when asked was low.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The survey results suggest little current consideration is given to early life factors in adult respiratory medicine, despite increasing evidence that early life factors do impact on later respiratory health. Improving training, increasing awareness and exploring new approaches to obtaining the information are required.
authors.forename: Charlotte E
authors.initials: CE
authors.lastname: Bolton
authors.forename: Andrew
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Bush
authors.forename: John R
authors.initials: JR
authors.lastname: Hurst
authors.forename: Sailesh
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Kotecha
authors.forename: Lorcan
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: McGarvey
authors.forename: Janet
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Stocks
authors.forename: Martin J
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Walshaw
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001724:Birth Weight; D005315:Fetal Diseases; D006801:Humans; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D007232:Infant, Newborn, Diseases; D008487:Medical History Taking; D010818:Practice Patterns, Physicians' / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D047928:Premature Birth; D012140:Respiratory Tract Diseases / Q000628:therapy*; D006113:United Kingdom