Antibiotic Use in Children Is Associated With Increased Risk of Asthma

A study published on March 2, 2009 in the journal Pediatrics, by the American Academy of Pediatrics, shows an association between the use of antibiotics in the first year of life linked to an increase in the occurrence of asthma. The study was also reported on March 9, 2009 by Medscape, and noted that the risk of childhood asthma increases with the number of courses of antibiotics prescribed.

Study author, Fawziah Marra, PharmD, from University of British Columbia in Vancouver, commented in the Medscape article, "Antibiotic exposure in early childhood is a possible contributor to the increasing asthma prevalence in industrialized countries. Although a number of published studies have tested this hypothesis, the results have been conflicting."

The researchers were very careful in this study to rule out other factors that might alter the results of the study. Things taken into account included such factors as sex; socioeconomic status; urban or rural address; birth weight; gestational age; delivery method; frequency of clinician visits; hospital visit involving surgery; visits to an allergist, congenital anomalies; and the presence of otitis media (ear infections), acute bronchitis, or chronic bronchitis; and upper and lower respiratory tract infections. These factors were accounted for so the results would only indicate the association between antibiotic usage in the first year of life and the onset of childhood asthma.

After adjusting out all other factors the authors reported that, antibiotic usage in the first year of life was associated with a small risk for the development of asthma in early childhood. They also noted that the more antibiotics were used in the first year of life, the greater the risk for the development of asthma. Researchers also reported that with the exception of sulfonamides, all other antibiotics were associated with an increased risk for the development of childhood asthma.

The study authors noted in their conclusions, "We have shown that in a large, population-based cohort, after careful conducted analyses adjusting for many potential confounders and with multiple sensitivity analyses, the association between antibiotic exposure and the subsequent development of asthma remains. This study provides evidence that the use of antibiotics in the first year of life is associated with a small risk of developing asthma, and this risk increases with the number of courses of antibiotics prescribed."