New Study Shows Gender Difference In Childhood Asthma

When it comes to the sexes and childhood asthma boys often outgrow the condition more often than girls. Boys are also more prone to it earlier in life.

A new study out from Harvard Medical School points to an unknown mechanism behind the development of the ailment. 1,000 children had their lung function tested for the study over a nine year period. The results of this latest study are in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine. In the UK one out of ten children deal with asthma. Experts in that nation believe that sex hormones may have a role in the disease. Most children who suffer from asthma stop having symptoms by adulthood. The reasons for this though are not yet understood. Dr Kelan Tantisira, who led the study found that boys are both more likely to wheeze during childhood and to outgrow the symptoms by the time they reach adolescent. This study is the first to study the difference that gender may play in a documented way. The children in the study were all between the ages of five and twelve. They all had mild to moderate asthma. The children were tested annually over a nine year period. Doctors gave the children a drug to cause their airways to narrow. It was noted how much of a dosage was needed to achieve this. The amount of the drug needed for the girls did not change much over time while larger doses were needed each year for the boys. By the age of 18 only 14% of the girls failed to have a reaction to the drugs compared to 27% of the boys.

Dr Tantisira said: "While our results were not unexpected, they do point to intriguing potential mechanisms to explain the gender differences in asthma incidence and severity.

"Especially intriguing is that the differences in gender begin at the time of transition into early puberty."

The researchers plan to continue the study with the test subjects throughout adulthood. This study may be able to find new treatments for asthma that focus on genders.