Children born to mothers with lupus are at a higher risk for childhood asthma

What is it about?

Systemic lupus erythematosus ("lupus") and asthma share some pathophysiologic characteristics and a predisposition to both tends to be heritable. Also, mothers with lupus have a higher risk to give birth prematurely compared to mothers without the disease. This research paper shows that children born to mothers who have lupus diagnosed at the time of delivery have a 46% higher likelihood of being diagnosed with asthma in their childhood compared to children born to mothers without lupus. The rate of asthma is 150% increased in children of mothers with lupus who reported smoking during the first trimester of pregnancy. Preterm birth (giving birth before 37 weeks of gestation are completed, instead of normally 40 weeks) is a recognized risk factor for asthma in the childhood. This may explain why we see an increased rate of asthma in children of mothers with lupus. Our analyses showed, however, that preterm birth accounts for about only one-third of the observed increased risk.

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Why is it important?

Our findings show that children born to mothers with lupus have a higher risk for being diagnosed with asthma in their childhood. The risk is much higher in mothers who smoke. Preterm birth, which occurs in a higher rate in pregnancies complicated with lupus, is not the sole factor responsible for this observation.

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