Asthma linked to recurrent pregnancy loss, finds study

Women with asthma appear to have an increased risk of pregnancy loss. The impact of asthma on recurrent pregnancy loss (RPL), defined as three consecutive losses, is, however, unknown.

The aim of this study was to investigate if having asthma before or during the fertile age is associated with pregnancy loss and RPL.

Based on Danish national health registers, we identified all women aged 6 to 45 years with at least two filled prescriptions of an anti-asthma drug during the period 1977 to 2019. Women with asthma were compared to women without asthma. Pregnancy outcomes were retrieved for both groups from national health registers. Logistic regression with adjustment for year of birth and educational level provided odds ratios (OR) for a number of pregnancy losses. Subgroup analyses were conducted for early-onset (age 6-15), adult-onset (age 16-39) and late-onset (age 40-45) asthma. Lastly, they compared uncontrolled asthma (defined as ≥ 400 doses of Short-acting β2-agonist in a year) to controlled asthma (defined as < 400 doses of short-acting b2-agonist in a year).

Results:

• In a population of 1,309,786 women, we identified 128,553 women with asthma and 1,297,233 women without asthma.
• Compared to non-asthmatic women, women with asthma had ORs for 1, 2 and ≥3 pregnancy losses of 1.05 and 1.18 respectively, and for RPL of 1.19
• In women with early-onset asthma, the OR of ≥3 pregnancy losses was 1.47
• For women classified as having uncontrolled asthma compared to controlled asthma, we found a significant OR of 1.60 for ≥3 pregnancy losses.

Thus, researchers found a significant positive association between asthma and the number of pregnancy losses and recurrent pregnancy losses. Early-onset asthma and uncontrolled asthma. was more strongly associated with pregnancy loss than an adult- and late-onset asthma and controlled asthma.

Reference:

Asthma is associated with pregnancy loss and recurrent pregnancy loss: A nationwide cohort study by Casper Tidemandsen, et al. published in The Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology: In Practice

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaip.2022.04.044

Keywords:

Asthma, recurrent, pregnancy, loss, Casper Tidemandsen, Pia Egerup, Charlotte Suppli Ulrik, Anders Pretzmann Mikkelsen, Øjvind Lidegaard, The Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology: In Practice