Caesarean babies '80% more likely to have asthma'

The findings are based on almost 3,000 children whose respiratory health was monitored until they reached the age of 8.

By the time the children were 8 years old, 12.4% had been diagnosed with asthma for which they had been prescribed inhaled steroids.

Just 8.5% of children had been born by caesarean but they were almost 80% more likely to have been diagnosed with asthma than their vaginally-delivered peers.

Rates of asthma have soared in industrialised countries in parallel with a rise in caesarean section births, which have increased from 5% in the 1970s to more than 30% in 2000.

The authors say that the link between caesarean section births and an increased risk in asthma may lie in the timing of the priming of the immune system: caesarean delivery delays exposure to microbes.

neil.durham@haymarket.com

Comment below and tell us what you think