Babies born via (IVF) are more prone to asthma later compared to naturally conceived children, a new study says.
Researchers found children of the so-called "sub-fertile" parents - those who experience difficulties in conceiving for a long time or conceive via Assisted Reproductive Technology (ART), at higher risk of developing asthma or wheezing at the age of 5 and taking anti-asthmatic medication.
Asthma is the inflammation of the air passages, leading to narrowing of airways that carry air from the mouth and nose to the lungs. It is one of the most common chronic conditions affecting one in 20 children. According to the Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America (AAFA), nearly 5 million children below 18 years are affected by asthma and about 36,000 kids miss school due to the ailment.
The ART includes the artificial methods adopted by people who experience difficulties in conceiving naturally. In vitro fertilization (IVF), intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI), cryopreservation and intrauterine insemination (IUI) are some of the ART methods commonly used. ART has been prevalent in US from 1981 and each year, over 1 percent of American infants are conceived through ART. According to latest estimate from CDC, 147,260 ART sessions conducted in 2010 resulted in 47,090 live births.
In the current study, researchers from the Universities of Oxford and Essex, U.K., found IVF and ICSI babies at two to four times higher risk of experiencing asthma and related issues.
For the study, researchers used data from the UK Millennium Cohort Study that contains details about 18,818 children, born in Britain between 2000 and 2002.
On the basis of parents' pregnancy planning and conception, researchers divided the children into 6 groups. When the children completed 5 years, details about the children's health were collected through surveys.
Of the 13,041 children included in the study, 104 were born via ART. At the end of the study, researchers found "sub-fertile" parents more likely to have children with asthma (39 percent), wheezing (27 percent) and taking an asthma treatment (90 percent).
"Our analysis suggests that it is the ART group in particular who are at higher risk," Dr Claire Carson, a researcher at the National Perinatal Epidemiology Unit at the University of Oxford (UK), said in a news release.
The study is published Dec.6 in Human Reproduction.
