Childhood asthma as a risk factor for adult chronic obstructive pulmonary disease: a systematic review and meta-analysis

ABSTRACT

Background

Due to the disagreement in studies, the present study performed a systematic review and meta-analysis to investigate the relationship between childhood asthma and the development of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) in adulthood.

Methods

Literature search was performed in Medline and Embase databases until the end of 2019. Data were recorded as adjusted odds ratio (OR) and 95% confidence interval (95%CI). Analyses were performed on STATA 14.0 and an overall OR was reported. Subgroup analysis was performed to determine the source of heterogeneity.

Results

Data from 11 articles were included in the meta-analysis. Overall, the odds of developing adulthood COPD in children with asthma were 3.0 times higher than that in non-asthmatic children (OR = 3.00; 95%CI: 2.25–4.00; p < 0.001). The relationship between childhood asthma and COPD in adulthood was reported somewhat greater in random sampling method studies than consecutive sampling method studies (OR = 2.89; 95% CI: 1.72–4.86; p = 0.001).

Conclusion

Asthma in childhood could be considered as an independent risk factor for COPD in adulthood. Since type of study, sampling method, sample size of study and COPD prevalence are the main sources of heterogeneity, further prospective high-quality studies assessing the relationship of childhood asthma and adulthood COPD are recommended to be performed.

KEYWORDS:

• Asthma
• COPD
• risk factor
• pediatrics
• adulthood

Article highlights

• There have been several studies in recent years suggesting that early-life lung function can affect the development of COPD in adults.

• There is a disagreement on the relationship of childhood asthma and the risk of COPD in adulthood.

• Our results showed that developing adulthood COPD in children with asthma was 3.0 times higher than that in non-asthmatic children.

• The relationship between childhood asthma and COPD in adulthood was reported somewhat greater in random sampling method studies than consecutive sampling method studies.

• Since type of study, sampling method, sample size of the study and COPD prevalence are the main sources of heterogeneity, it is recommended performing further prospective high-quality studies to assess relationship of childhood asthma and adulthood COPD.

Acknowledgments

The author would like to thank Dr. Fattah Hama Rahim Fattah, Department of Family and Community Medicine, College of Medicine, University of Sulaimani, Sulaimani, Iraq for his invaluable contribution in collecting and summarizing the articles. In addition, I kindly appreciate Prof. Mostafa Hosseini, Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, School of Public Health, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran for valuable comments on analyzing the data.

Declaration of interest

The authors have no relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript. This includes employment, consultancies, honoraria, stock ownership or options, expert testimony, grants, or patents received or pending, or royalties.

Reviewer disclosures

Peer reviewers on this manuscript have no relevant financial or other relationships to disclose.

Authors’ contributions

K. M. Ali participated in designing, data gathering, analysis and drafting of paper

Supplemetnary material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed here.

Additional information

Funding

This paper was not funded.