Grant: Project Grant

Allergic airway diseases (AAD) such as asthma and allergic rhinitis (hay fever) are some of the most common diseases in preschool children. AADs in children are likely caused by many factors, such as mothers dealing with allergy or asthma during pregnancy, paternal exposures during preconception period, and environmental factors and exposures prior to or during pregnancy and during early childhood. Our study, "Maternal Allergy and AsthMA and Early Life Events of Allergy and Asthma in Children (MAMA-Asthma)", will mainly study the impact of asthma and allergy during pregnancy and their connection to AAD in children. We will study the effects of how severe the disease is, how well the symptoms are controlled, and the medications used during pregnancy. Additionally, we will explore the association of paternal asthma and AADs and childhood health outcomes. Medical conditions like asthma and allergy in pregnant women may cause complications during childbirth (e.g., low birth weight, preterm birth). We will examine whether these complications further increase the risk of AADs in childhood. We will also examine the extent to which social determinants of health (including urban/rural residence, socio-economic status), and environmental factors (such as air pollution, and distance to green spaces such as parks and nature preserves) impact AAD risk. The MAMA-Asthma study will use data from the Alberta Pregnancy Outcomes and Birth Events (PrOBE) registry. This registry holds data on ~500,000 women who have given birth to ~900,000 children between 2005 and 2024 in Alberta. We will be linking fathers' data to the PrOBE Registry. The MAMA-Asthma project will generate new knowledge of the impact of allergy and asthma across generations, which can be useful in designing childhood allergy prevention programs both locally and internationally.