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DO CHILDHOOD CHEST INFECTIONS RAISE THE RISK OF ASTHMA?

Having a chest infection as a child raises a person's risk of asthma by up to four times, research suggested in September 2017.

Suffering from a lower-respiratory tract infection, such as bronchitis or pneumonia, before the age of five increases an individual's likelihood of developing the lung condition by between two and four times, a study found.

An upper-respiratory tract infection, including a cold or tonsillitis, raises the risk by 1.5 times.

Study author Dr Evelien van Meel from the Erasmus Medical Center in the Netherlands, said: 'These findings support the hypothesis that early-life respiratory tract infections may influence the development of respiratory illnesses in the longer term.

'In particular, lower-respiratory tract infections in early life seem to have the greatest adverse effect on lung function and the risk of asthma.' 

The researchers analysed 154,492 European children born between 1989 and 2013.

Children were included in the study if respiratory-tract infection information was available from when they were aged between six months and five years old.

Follow-up periods ranged from four to 15 years.

Lung function was assessed by measuring the amount of air that the study's participants could forcibly exhale after maximum inhalation and how much they could breathe out in the first second. 

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