text_1: Asthma gene's effect on respiratory symptoms in infancy depends on breastfeeding status
text_2: The release describes research into a possible link between breastfeeding and infants having a genetic predisposition to asthma. Researchers drew data from medical records on respiratory symptoms and breastfeeding status and compared them with genotype data gathered from study participants. It claims a 27 percent relative risk reduction among predisposed infants who were breastfed compared to those who weren’t, but we have no other data points, no absolute risk reduction information. The release doesn’t provide enough information for readers to be assured that other factors did not play a role in the results. Reviewers (and presumably other interested readers) were unable to access the actual research paper, or an abstract online, at the time of the review. [Editor’s note. Several days after reaching out to the issuing organization, an abstract on the study was provided, but it did not change the outcome of the review.] The relationship between genetic variance and environmental factors in the eventual development of asthma is not crystal clear. Asthma appears to have a strong genetic predisposition. A child with a parent with asthma is three-to-six times more likely to develop asthma than other children, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). If breastfeeding infants predisposed to asthma could actually reduce their risk of respiratory symptoms by a quarter or more, then that would be a substantial improvement, both to individual and to public health, especially given the growing proportion of children developing asthma and other respiratory problems.