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Childhood asthma strongest COPD risk factor?
A diagnosis of asthma in childhood may be a greater risk factor for COPD than smoking, according to a study by Philippa Shirtcliffe and Richard Beasley of the Medical Research Institute of New Zealand.
In a study of almost 750 people they found that the risk of COPD was increased in smokers by 30% for every 10 pack years of smoking.
However, they also found that childhood asthma showed the strongest association with COPD, equivalent to adding about 20 years to lung age.
The researchers say their findings support the so-called ‘Dutch hypothesis’ that asthma and COPD share common origins and should be considered as points on a common disease continuum, at least in some patients.
“The findings of this analysis … challenge the dogma that the vast majority of cases of GOLD-defined COPD are due to smoking,” they write online in the Internal Medicine Journal.
