Three concomitant phenomena occur in the later years of childhood: increases in the incidence of asthma, obesity and early menarche. This article is an overview of the current epidemiologic, basic, genetic and epigenetic evidence about this relationship. As a consequence we propose that obese girls who have an early menarche (≤ 11 years of age) constitute a new asthma phenotype in childhood. Future studies need to be carried out in order to find the best control and treatment of this new asthma phenotype.
Keywords: Asthma phenotype; Childhood; Early menarche; Epidemiology; Genetics; Obesity.
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