title: Foetal and childhood growth and asthma in adult life.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Recent research suggests that asthma may originate through defects in the airway epithelium, acquired in utero, and an altered response to infections after birth. Here, we examine whether asthma in adult life is associated with reduced body size at birth and poor living conditions in childhood.
  
  
  METHODS
  We studied 658 people taking medication for asthma in a cohort of 13 345 men and women born in Helsinki, Finland, during 1934-1944. Their body and placental size at birth, and their living conditions and growth in childhood, had been recorded.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The odds ratios for asthma were 0.93 (95% CI 0.89-0.97, p = 0.001) per cm increase in birth length and 0.92 (0.89-0.96, p < 0.001) per cm increase in the length of placental surface. After allowing for size at birth, growth during childhood was unrelated to asthma. People who were born into families of low socio-economic status were at increased risk of later asthma.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Slow linear growth in utero, which could be a result of impaired placentation, increases the risk of later asthma. Slow linear growth may be associated with impaired development of the airways. Babies with impaired lung development born into families of low socio-economic status may be most vulnerable to the disease.
authors.affiliation: Heart Research Center, Oregon Health and Science University, Portland, OR, USA. djpbarker@gmail.com
authors.forename: David J P
authors.initials: DJ
authors.lastname: Barker
authors.forename: Clive
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Osmond
authors.forename: Tom J
authors.initials: TJ
authors.lastname: Forsén
authors.forename: Kent L
authors.initials: KL
authors.lastname: Thornburg
authors.forename: Eero
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Kajantie
authors.forename: Johan G
authors.initials: JG
authors.lastname: Eriksson
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001249:Asthma / Q000191:economics / Q000209:etiology* / Q000503:physiopathology; D001724:Birth Weight; D001942:Breast Feeding; D002648:Child; D002657:Child Development; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D008297:Male; D010929:Placentation; D011247:Pregnancy; D012907:Smoking / Q000009:adverse effects