Overweight and dysanapsis in childhood asthma

Asthma is a chronic inflammatory disease with multiple genetic and environmental factors underpinning its various endotypes. To identify new opportunities for prevention and early asthma treatment, we need to detect, in advance, individuals on trajectories leading to obstructive lung disease and tackle associated risk factors. Besides genetic susceptibility, early risk factors for poor lung function include prematurity or low birth weight, respiratory infections or lack of breastfeeding, and poor socioeconomic status or increased exposure to smoke and air pollutants [1]. While the association of low birth weight with childhood asthma seems largely explained by gestational age at birth, increased infant weight gain has also been suggested to increase risk of preschool wheezing and school-age asthma [2].