Research from New Zealand challenges the assumption that children with asthma are more vulnerable to the airway damage inflicted by smoking.

The Dunedin Study of over 1,000 people followed to the age of 38 found children with asthma that persisted to adulthood had low FEV1/FVC ratios at study end and more than a third had persistent airflow limitation.

However smoking did not increase the risk of airflow obstruction among these participants.

Smoking was, however, associated with airflow obstruction among participants without asthma as well as those with late-onset asthma or asthma in remission.

“These findings indicate that synergistic interactions between smoking and asthma are unlikely to explain individual differences in the risk of developing chronic airflow obstruction among smokers,” the researchers concluded in their study published this week in AJRCCM.