Are girls more susceptible to the effects of prenatal exposure to tobacco smoke on asthma?
Jaakkola JJ; Gissler M Institute of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, The University of Birmingham, Birmingham, UK. j.jaakkola@bham.ac.uk BACKGROUND: Prenatal exposure to tobacco smoke through mother’s smoking increases the risk of developing asthma later in life. A recent study suggested that this effect is present only in girls. We explored potential differences in susceptibility between boys and girls. METHODS: We followed all 58,841 Finnish singleton babies born in 1987 through 5 nationwide registries for 7 years and identified all cases of doctor-diagnosed asthma (ICD-9 code 493).
