The natural history of asthma and wheezing illnesses from birth to adolescence: Determinants of the remission of asthma

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We aim to discover factors associated with the resolution of asthma during adolescence. This may lead to the development of interventions that will resolve or minimise asthma symptoms. Most asthma begins in childhood but, despite intensive research efforts, the causes of asthma remain elusive. A substantial proportion of children with asthma appear to outgrow their symptoms during teenage years. By concentrating on events during this period of childhood, we hope to identify important differences between children who outgrow their asthma and those in whom it persists.We will study an established cohort of children (the ALSPAC study) in whom we have extensive information about early life environment and symptoms. We will study the progression of asthma as the participants go through puberty and link this to aspects of their lifestyle (such as diet, smoking, and exercise). An evolving database of variations in genes associated with asthma will also allow us to find out if environmental factors interact with particular genes to cause persistence or resolution of asthma.No interventions have been discovered that prevent the development of asthma. Exposures that appear to favour asthma resolution in this study will be developed into intervention studies to test whether these show promise in helping to resolve asthma symptoms once they have become established.