Parity, Age at First Birth, and Risk of Death from Asthma: Evidence from a Cohort in Taiwan

This study was undertaken to examine whether there is an association between age at first birth and parity and risk of asthma death. The study cohort consisted of 1,292,462 women in Taiwan who had a first live birth between 1 January 1978 and 31 December 1987. We tracked each woman from the date of their first childbirth to 31 December 2009, and their vital status was ascertained by linking records with the computerized mortality database. Cox proportional hazard regression models were used to estimate hazard ratios of death from asthma associated with parity and age at first birth. A trend of increasing risk of asthma death was seen with increasing age at first birth. The adjusted hazard ratio was 0.75 (95% confidence interval (CI) = 0.53-1.08) among women with two live births and 0.53 (95% CI = 0.36-0.78) among those with three or more births, compared with women who had one live birth. There was a significant decreasing trend in adjusted hazard ratios of asthma death with increasing parity. This study is the first to provide evidences to support an association between reproductive factors (parity and early age at first birth) and the risk of asthma death.