Being overweight during pregnancy increases child asthma risk up to 61%

PREGNANT women who are obese put their children at higher risk of developing asthma compared with mothers of normal weight, a study in Sweden has found.

The study, which covered more than 129,000 mothers in Stockholm and their 189,000 children, found that mothers who were very obese, or with a body mass index of 35 and over, had a 61% increased risk of their children developing asthma by the time they were between eight and 10 years of age.

“We found that there was a clear increased risk of childhood asthma, medication use and hospitalisation with increasing degree of obesity and overweight in mothers in early pregnancy,” said study lead author Adrian Lowe from the Murdoch Childrens Research Institute and University of Melbourne.