Father's Smoking Habit Prior to Conception Linked to Increased Risk of Asthma in Offspring

A new study reveals that the chances of a child developing asthma increases if the father used to smoke prior to conception.

The latest study presented at the European Respiratory Society (ERS) International congress in Munich, offers another reason to young men to quit smoking at the earliest. This is one of the early studies that analyzes the association between a father's smoking habits before conception and an offspring's risk of developing asthma.

This finding supports the evidence from animal studies conducted earlier that showed fathers' lifestyle before parenthood could influence the health of the offspring. In this study, the researchers evaluated the smoking habits of 13,000 men and women using questionnaire. Both mothers and fathers were asked to report the number of years they smoked prior to conception. They also looked at the incidence of asthma in children and whether or not they quit smoking before the conception of the baby.

The researchers noticed that children whose fathers smoked prior to conception, they suffered from non-allergic asthma without hay fever. The risk of asthma further increased if the father smoked before the age of 15 years and it further rose depending upon the duration they smoked for. However, there was no link between mothers' smoking prior to conception and a child's risk for asthma.

Dr Cecile Svanes, from the University of Bergen in Norway, said, "This study is important as it is the first study looking at how a father's smoking habit pre-conception can affect the respiratory health of his children. Given these results, we can presume that exposure to any type of air pollution, from occupational exposures to chemical exposures, could also have an effect. It is important for policymakers to focus on interventions targeting young men and warning them of the dangers of smoking and other exposures to their unborn children in the future."