MedWire News: The use of acetaminophen (paracetamol) in early life is associated with an increased risk for wheeze in young children, study results suggest.

Writing in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, Alemayehu Amberbir (Addis Ababa University, Ethiopia) and team explain: "Acetaminophen has been hypothesized to increase the risk of asthma and allergic disease… but evidence from longitudinal cohort studies is lacking."

To investigate further, the team studied data on 1006 children born in Butajira, Ethiopia, between 2005 and 2006.

The children's mothers completed questionnaires on their infants' use of acetaminophen during the first year of life and the incidence of wheeze and eczema by the age of 3 years.

Out of 756 children who did not suffer from wheeze during the first year of life, 58 (7.7%) experienced incident wheeze by the age 3 years. Similarly, 57 (7.3%) of 780 children who did not suffer from eczema during the first year of life experienced the condition by the age of 3 years.

Analysis revealed that there was a dose-dependent association between acetaminophen use and an increased risk for incident wheeze. Indeed, the children who had taken one to three acetaminophen tablets and those who had taken four tablets at the age of 1 year were a respective 1.88 and 7.25 times more likely to experience incident wheeze over the following month than those who had never taken acetaminophen.

There was no link between acetaminophen use and and increased risk for eczema, the researchers note.

Amberbir and team conclude: "These findings suggest frequent acetaminophen use early in life increases the risk of new-onset wheeze, whereas the role of geohelminth infection on allergic disease incidence remains to be seen as the cohort matures."

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