Mums who are overweight or obese when they become pregnant may be programming their children to have asthma-like respiratory symptoms during adolescence, suggests research published online in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health.

The prevalence of children's asthma has risen substantially worldwide, since the 1970s, and up to 37% of teenagers may have asthma symptoms, making it one of the most common childhood long term conditions, say the authors.

The reasons for this increase are unclear, but environmental factors are likely to have a key role, they say, adding that the prevalence of overweight/obesity among women at the time they enter pregnancy has also increased dramatically over the past few decades.

To read the rest of this article