Are behavioral difficulties in children with asthma a consequence of the disease? A UK study indicates that, to the contrary, behavior problems in early life precede the development of wheeze.

Dr. Rachel Calam and colleagues from the University of Manchester followed a group of children, comparing the rate of significant behavior problems at age 3 between 397 children who never wheezed and 39 children who developed wheeze after the age of 3 years.

Compared with children who never wheezed, those with wheeze were more likely have significant behavior problems at 3 years, the researchers report in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine.

Scores on family functioning factors were also worse in the families of children who developed late-onset wheeze. However, parental anxiety and depression scores were not increased.

Further analysis showed significant and independent associations between increased risk of late-onset wheeze in children and having a mother with asthma or who smoked.

Behavioral difficulties are therefore associated with an increased risk of developing wheeze, Calam and colleagues conclude. However, they noted that whether interventions can prevent the development of behavior problems in very young children, and potentially reduce the development of asthma or the severity of asthma, requires further investigation.

SOURCE: American Journal of Respiratory Critical Care Medicine, February 15, 2005.