Figures from the American Lung Association show that at least 11 million people have been diagnosed with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), a lung condition that makes it difficult to breathe.
The chronic disease is often linked to smoking but findings of a new research have found that its cause may have deeper roots in some people.
For the new study published in the journal Respirology, researchers have found that children who grew up with mothers who heavily smoked may have an increased risk of suffering from COPD. The study also suggests that in those who also get hooked by smoking in adulthood, their risk for the condition increases threefold when compared with those who had less exposure to second-hand smoke during their childhood years.
Study researcher Jennifer Perret of the University of Melbourne and colleagues said that nearly 40 percent of children have at least one parent who smokes globally and this number impels knowing the effects of exposure to maternal smoking on the children's long term lung function.
For the study, the researchers tracked 1,389 individuals for more than five decades. The researchers found that the participants whose mothers smoked more than 20 cigarettes each day had nearly three times increased risk of suffering from airflow obstruction in middle age compared with the participants who were not exposed to passive smoke.
In participants who do not smoke, maternal smoking was linked with reduced lung volumes.
The researchers said that the findings should bolster recommendations urging pregnant women and young mothers to stop smoking.
"Heavy maternal smoking during childhood appears to predispose to spirometrically defined COPD. The interplay between maternal and personal smoking on gas transfer factor suggests that early life exposure increases an individual's susceptibility to adult smoking exposure," the researchers wrote in their study, which was published on March 11.
"These findings provide further evidence to suggest that maternal smoking might be a risk factor for COPD and reinforce the public health message advocating smoking abstinence."
The findings also suggest that a combination of active and passive smoking could pose more harm on lung function than passive or active smoking alone. Perret said that the findings are not surprising at all.
"Smoking in later life can result in deficits in lung function by middle age. So it was not unexpected to see that mothers' smoking . . . could also adversely influence the growing lungs of [their children]," Perret said.
