Fathers’ passive smoke exposure throughout childhood may be associated with non-allergic asthma risk in offspring, according to research letter published in the European Respiratory Journal. The association was assessed using data
from 1,689 father-offspring pairs. Childhood asthma and hay fever status were reported by parents at age 7. Fathers’ passive smoke exposure before age 15 was linked with increased odds for non-allergic asthma in offspring by age 7 (adjusted multinomial OR [aMOR], 1.59; 95% CI, 1.09-2.32). The association was stronger in ever-smoked fathers than in fully non-smoking fathers (aMOR, 1.72 [95% CI, 1.02-2.92] vs 1.39 [95% CI, 0.78-2.46]) after further stratification by fathers’ lifetime active smoking history. In further interaction analyses, a significant association was
suggested between combined passive exposure to fathers’ smoke before completing puberty and active smoking with offspring childhood nonallergic asthma (aMOR, 1.68; 95% CI, 1.02-2.79). The links with offspring overall asthma or allergic asthma were not statistically significant.
