ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Pediatr.
Sec. Pediatric Pulmonology
Prevalence and early life risk factors of asthma in preterm adolescents: a cohort study
Provisionally accepted
- 1Beatrix Children’s Hospital, University Medical Center Groningen, Groningen, Netherlands
- 2University Medical Center Groningen, Groningen, Netherlands
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Aim: We seek to elucidate the prevalence, types of respiratory symptoms experienced and potential early life risk factors of asthma in adolescence. Methods: We performed a prospective cohort study, including 294 adolescents (130 moderately-late preterm [MLP], 81 early preterm [EP], 83 fullterm [FT]). Asthma, asthma-like symptoms and smoking in early childhood and adolescence were self-reported. We collected prenatal and postnatal characteristics including maternal smoking, bronchopulmonary dysplasia, and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) infections. Results: In 11% of EP, 4% of MLP and 4% of FT adolescents, a formal asthma diagnosis was made. Asthma-like symptoms were reported in 14%, 14% and 7% respectively. Being hospitalized for an RSV infection was associated with a four times higher risk of asthma at adolescence (odds ratio 3.68, 95%-confidence interval 1.04-13.0), while other predictors did not contribute. Conclusion: MLP children have similar rates of asthma and asthma-like symptoms as FT peers, while EP adolescents might have a higher risk of asthma, but had similar rates of asthma-like symptoms. RSV infections that require hospitalization are associated with an asthma diagnosis in adolescence.
Keywords: adolescence, Asthma, Epidemiology, prematurity, Risk factors
Received: 08 Oct 2025; Accepted: 19 Dec 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Van Dokkum, Bos, Reijneveld and Vrijlandt. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Nienke H Van Dokkum
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