Early Origins of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease: Prenatal and Early Life Risk Factors

Michela Deolmi, Nicola Mattia Decarolis, Matteo Motta, Heidi Makrinioti, Valentina Fainardi (), Giovanna Pisi and Susanna Esposito
Additional contact information
Michela Deolmi: Pediatric Clinic, Department of Medicine and Surgery, University of Parma, Via Gramsci 14, 43124 Parma, Italy
Nicola Mattia Decarolis: Pediatric Clinic, Department of Medicine and Surgery, University of Parma, Via Gramsci 14, 43124 Parma, Italy
Matteo Motta: Pediatric Clinic, Department of Medicine and Surgery, University of Parma, Via Gramsci 14, 43124 Parma, Italy
Heidi Makrinioti: Department of Emergency Medicine, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 01451, USA
Valentina Fainardi: Pediatric Clinic, Department of Medicine and Surgery, University of Parma, Via Gramsci 14, 43124 Parma, Italy
Giovanna Pisi: Cystic Fibrosis Unit, Pediatric Clinic, Az. Ospedaliera-Universitaria di Parma, Via Gramsci 14, 43124 Parma, Italy
Susanna Esposito: Pediatric Clinic, Department of Medicine and Surgery, University of Parma, Via Gramsci 14, 43124 Parma, Italy

IJERPH, 2023, vol. 20, issue 3, 1-22

Abstract: The main risk factor for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is active smoking. However, a considerable amount of people with COPD never smoked, and increasing evidence suggests that adult lung disease can have its origins in prenatal and early life. This article reviews some of the factors that can potentially affect lung development and lung function trajectories throughout the lifespan from genetics and prematurity to respiratory tract infections and childhood asthma. Maternal smoking and air pollution exposure were also analyzed among the environmental factors. The adoption of preventive strategies to avoid these risk factors since the prenatal period may be crucial to prevent, delay the onset or modify the progression of COPD lung disease throughout life.

Keywords: COPD; early life; lung function; lung trajectory; chronic obstructive pulmonary disease; prematurity; asthma (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/20/3/2294/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/20/3/2294/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:20:y:2023:i:3:p:2294-:d:1048612

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().