Asthma Hypothesis

The purpose of the study is to determine the association of acetaminophen and development of asthma five to seven years later in children who used acetaminophen for fever at least once a month in the first of their life.

Independent variable: use of acetaminophen in children for their first year of their life

Dependent variable: risk of developing asthma five to seven years later.

Hypotheses:

1) There is a relationship between the use of acetaminophen and the risk of developing asthma in children

2) There is no relationship between the use of acetaminophen and the risk of developing asthma in children.

Definition of terms: Acetaminophen (Tylenol) – belongs to a class of drugs called analgesics and anti-pyretic. It relieves pain by

Strachan who reported a reverse relationship between family and development of allergic disorders, and suggested that a lower incidence of infection in early childhood, transmitted by unhygienic contact with older siblings as acquired. The theory implies a child’s environment can be too clean to stimulate the child’s immune system to respond to different threats during the time the child’s immune system is maturing. If the environment is too clean, the immune system will not mature properly and may not react right when the child’s immune system experiences bacteria or germs or other environmental triggers in life. The hypothesis suggests that the lack of immune system challenge results in many people developing immune-related health problems such as

John Mc Bride discussed that in a cross-sectional study referred to as ISAAC involving 122 centers in 54 countries, the researchers identified children with wheezing and asthma symptoms and collected acetaminophen exposure, and other factors contributing to the severity of asthma. It revealed that for 6-7 year olds, the risk of asthma was increased 1.61 –fold representing 95% confidence interval: 1.46-1.77 for those who used acetaminophen less than once per month but more than once per year. The link of acetaminophen and asthma was pointed out at almost all sites regardless of culture, geography or stage of economic development. The investigators calculated a population-attributable risk (PAR) for severe asthma symptoms related to exposure to acetaminophen was 38%. Despite the cross-sectional studies between acetaminophen and asthma association, researchers cannot prove that acetaminophen causes asthma but the association might be explained by the following factors: 1) confounding by indication (fever or viral illness in asthmatic persons that lead to acetaminophen and asthma exposure, 2) confounding by reverse causation (asthma causing fever or pain resulting to acetaminophen exposure), 3) preferential use of acetaminophen by children at greater risk for asthma due to fear that aspirin or other anti-inflammatory medications) may increase symptoms of