Using data from the Norwegian Mother and Child Cohort Study, the researchers compared associations between several conditions during pregnancy (with and without the use of paracetamol) and asthma developing in the 114,500 children in the study.
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Prenatal exposure to paracetamol was independently associated with a 13% increased risk of asthma, after adjustment for indications including respiratory tract infection, pain and fever.
The study also found no link between the children’s development of asthma and use of acetaminophen by their mothers when they were not pregnant, or their fathers’ use of the drug.
Experts said that regardless of the findings, acetaminophen remains to be the safest treatment option for pregnant women to fight pain and fever.
There’s new evidence that taking acetaminophen during pregnancy increases the risk of the baby developing asthma as a child. Additionally, pregnant women who took paracetamol for fever, flu and pain resulted having similar risks among their children.
They found that taking paracetamol by mothers during pregnancy and by babies in infanthood was linked to the development of asthma by the age of three.
This supported the conclusion that the results were not caused by underlying characteristics or health behaviours shared by the parents. Researchers in Norway and England found a consistent link between children having asthma at age three and having been exposed to the painkiller during pregnancy. They checked to see if there were any links between a number of health conditions during pregnancy, including asthma, and whether the mums-to-be had taken paracetamol when they were expecting.
Co-author of the study, Maria Magnus, commented that: “uncovering potential adverse effects is of public health importance, as paracetamol is the most commonly used painkiller among pregnant women and infants”.
The authors of the study, however, said their findings do not provide a causal relationship and that the results of the study do not warrant changes on pain relief guidelines among pregnant women.
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“But as for paracetamol, as with any medicine during pregnancy, it should be taken on a needs basis, but not just because you “might” require it”. The study also revealed that the reason for medication did not impact the probability of asthma.
