Father-child link for severe asthma symptoms

Asthma :: Father-child link for severe asthma symptoms

Children with a paternal history of asthma demonstrated significantly greater airway hyper-responsiveness (AHR) than those without such history - wrote Dr. Benjamin Raby and colleagues in their study, published in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine.

"Our findings suggest that the genetic contribution of the father is associated with AHR, an important determinant of disease severity among children with asthma."

The study did not find a linkage between maternal history of asthma and AHR, but did find that kids with two parents suffering from asthma were more at risk for AHR than were kids who had asthma-free parents.

The researchers note previous studies have drawn an association between mothers and children with asthma, but in those studies, the children were younger than in this one.