Novel Allergy & Lung Health Unit research highlighted in the media

The national news of Channel 9 highlighted on 22nd September research led by ALHU, CEB (Dr Chamara Senaratna and Prof Shyamali Dharmage) and the TAHS (Tasmanian Longitudinal Health Study) team as a breakthrough in health research. The researchers have uncovered longitudinal effects of early-life risk factors on Obstructive Sleep Apnoea (OSA) in middle-aged adults for the first time.

This research was also highlighted by Scimex that reports breaking science news for Australia and new Zealand.

Using data from TAHS that tracked a cohort of Tasmanians from age seven years to mid-sixties, the research team reported that maternal asthma and exposures to parental smoking and early-life bronchitis and pneumonia could increase the risk of OSA in middle-age. These findings are the first reports of longitudinal associations of childhood risk factors with OSA in adult life, and have significant implications for flagging OSA-risk at clinical practice and stimulating new research into novel pathobiological pathways for OSA.