New research shows the risk of asthma in the child can be reduced by nearly half if the mother engages in active physical exercise at least three times a week during pregnancy, compared to a child of a mother who is less active. Lifestyle and environmental associations were taken into account.

The risk of asthma in the child can be reduced by nearly half if the mother engages in active physical exercise at least three times a week during pregnancy, compared to a child of a mother who is less active, a new study by the University of Eastern Finland (UEF), Kuopio University Hospital (KUH) and the Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare (THL) shows. The researchers utilised data from nearly 1,000 mother-child pairs in the Kuopio Birth Cohort study, KuBiCo, followed from pregnancy until the child was seven years old.

Maternal exercise during pregnancy is known to have positive effects on the health of both the mother and the child. In a previous study, maternal exercise during pregnancy was also associated with strengthened newborn lung function.

“This is the first time we are observing an association between maternal exercise and the development of asthma in the child,” says Doctoral Researcher Emma-Reetta Musakka, BM, MSc, of the University of Eastern Finland.

Association of exercise with reduced risk of asthma in the child was independent of other maternal health, lifestyle and environmental factors
Maternal exercise and the risk of asthma in the child are associated with many of the same health, lifestyle and environmental factors, such as maternal weight, stress, illness, family exercise habits, nutrition and, for example, owning a dog. The present study accounted for the potential impact of these and several other similar factors on the results, but they did not explain the protective association of maternal exercise with the risk of asthma in the child. 

[https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S2666634024003702](https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S2666634024003702)