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Gene-Environment Interaction in the Intergenerational Transmission of Asthma

Owen Thompson1

  • 1University of Wisconsin Milwaukee, Milwaukee, WI, USA.

Health Economics
|September 17, 2016
PubMed

Insights

Genetic factors significantly influence pediatric asthma risk, especially in high socioeconomic status (SES) families. Environmental conditions play a larger role in lower SES families, diminishing the impact of genetics on child asthma.

Area of Science:

  • Environmental Health
  • Genetics
  • Pediatrics

Background:

  • Intergenerational health transmission mechanisms are not fully understood.
  • Pediatric asthma is the most common chronic childhood condition in America.
  • Parent-child health linkages are well-established but poorly explained.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate how genetic health transmission mechanisms for pediatric asthma vary by environmental conditions.
  • To determine the role of socioeconomic status (SES) in the genetic transmission of asthma.
  • To analyze the interplay between genetics, environment, and asthma development across generations.

Main Methods:

  • Utilized a sample of approximately 2000 adoptees and numerous similar biological families.
  • Compared parent-child asthma associations between biological and adoptive children.
  • Analyzed variations in these associations across different socioeconomic status (SES) levels.

Main Results:

  • In high SES families, parent-child asthma associations were 75% weaker in adoptees than biological children, indicating strong genetic influence.
  • In lower SES families, parent-child asthma associations were nearly identical for biological and adoptive children, suggesting minimal genetic influence.
  • Genetic transmission's importance for asthma varied significantly with SES.

Conclusions:

  • Environmental conditions significantly modulate the role of genetics in pediatric asthma transmission.
  • High SES environments appear to reveal a stronger genetic predisposition to asthma.
  • Low SES environments may involve environmental factors that largely determine asthma risk, overshadowing genetic contributions.

Keywords:
asthmahealth mobility

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