Parent-specific effects on risk of developing allergic sensitization and asthma in childhood

Abstract

Background: Parent's history of atopic traits increases the risk of the same traits in their children, but mother's history may confer an increased risk compared to father's history.

Objective: To investigate parent-specific effects on risk of developing allergic sensitization and asthma in childhood.

Methods: We included 685 parent-child trios from the Copenhagen Prospective Studies on Asthma in Childhood 2010 (COPSAC2010) cohort. Parent's asthma was assessed by structured interviews and child's asthma was diagnosed prospectively at regular visits to the COPSAC clinic until age 6. Specific IgE and total IgE levels were measured in parents and children by age 0.5, 1.5 and 6 years. Associations between parent and child disease traits were analyzed using general estimating equations model adjusted for breastfeeding and maternal smoking during 3rd trimester.

Results: Maternal compared to paternal elevated specific IgE increased the child's risk of elevated specific IgE from 0-6 years: adjusted odds ratio (aOR)mother = 1.49 [1.09-2.03], P = .01 and aORfather = 1.32 [0.96-1.82], P = .08. Maternal elevated total IgE also increased the child's risk of elevated total IgE: adjusted relative risk (aOR)mother = 4.32 [1.51-10.8], P < .01, while a trend was observed for paternal total IgE: aORfather = 2.01 [0.76-4.82], P = .13. Individual time point analyses showed that the maternal effect was strongest in early life, whereas the parental effects were comparable by age 6. A similar parent-specific pattern was observed for the child's risk of asthma.

Conclusions and clinical relevance: The effect of mother's history of atopic traits on the child's risk of developing the same traits in early childhood was stronger than the effect from father's history, which was not evident before age 6. This suggests that maternal non-genetic factors seem to confer an added disease risk to the child, particularly in early life.

Keywords: asthma; children; heritability; maternal effect; paternal effect; sensitization; specific IgE; total IgE.