Asthma: Boys Get It More, Outgrow It More Than Girls

During childhood, boys are more likely than girls to have asthma. But, when boys and girls alike have asthma, the boys are more likely than the girls to outgrow it as adolescence nears. This finding leads a team of Harvard researchers to suggest the body has a built-in asthma development mechanism that may lead to better maintenance or preventive care.

The research team, led by Kelan G. Tantisira, MD, MPH, of Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School, went to CAMP (Childhood Asthma Management Program) to find 1,041 boys and girls aged 5 to 12, all with mild to moderate cases of persistent asthma. Each one underwent an analysis for airway responsiveness (AR), which involves breathing methacholine to provoke an asthmatic response.

Each child was followed for several years, with 8.6 years of follow-up as average. Each year the methacholine AR challenge was administered. Over the years, a clear gender-based pattern emerged.

The girls’ ability to respond to the challenge did not vary much over time. The boys’ responses, however, indicated they were becoming less and less affected by asthma as the years went by. Each year, more and more methacholine was needed to provoke a response. By the time the children were 16, asthmatic boys could tolerate twice as much methacholine as asthmatic girls could.

Tantisira says the next step is to follow these teens into adulthood to document any continuing gender differences that develop as they mature. The research team is said to be particularly intrigued by the age of onset (puberty) for the differences between the mechanisms of asthma in boys and in girls to become active.

The American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine carries the full story in its second August issue. The journal is a publication of the American Thoracic Society.

Source: American Thoracic Society

Filed under: Adolescents, Asthma, Children's Health, Medical Research