Acetaminophen May Double Risk of Asthma

An international team of researchers has linked acetaminophen use with the development and/or maintenance of asthma, rhinoconjunctivitis, and eczema in 13- to 14-year-old children, according to research published ahead of print by the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine.

For the study, more than 300,000 participants across 50 countries completed two written questionnaires and one video questionnaire; responses quantified the use of acetaminophen and asthma, eczema, and allergy symptoms.

Investigators found the risk of asthma 43% higher in "medium use" individuals than in nonusers; high users of the drug had 2.51 times the risk of nonusers. Rhinoconjunctivitis and eczema were both higher in users than in nonusers.

"The overall population-attributable risks for current symptoms of severe asthma were around 40[%], suggesting that if the associations were causal, they would be of major public health significance," said study first author Richard Beasley, MD, professor of medicine, Medical Research Institute of New Zealand, on behalf of the International Study of Asthma and Allergies in Childhood (ISAAC). "Randomized controlled trials are now urgently required to investigate this relationship further and to guide the use of antipyretics, not only in children but in pregnancy and adult life."

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