Long term effects of childhood asthma on adult health

Childhood asthma is a major chronic condition affecting millions of children in this country, yet little is known about its potential long term consequences. In this paper, we estimate the relationship between childhood asthma and several outcomes as a young adult. To overcome many of the methodological issues plaguing earlier research on this topic, we estimate sibling fixed effect models that correct for measurement error using parental reports of asthma status. In our preferred specification, we find substantial long term impacts of childhood asthma on general health status, obesity, and missed work and school days as a young adult. Broadly, our findings contribute to the growing literature in social sciences on the impacts of early life health conditions on later life health and social outcomes and suggest early treatment of asthma may have long-run benefits on young adult health and socioeconomic outcomes. (C) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.