A research paper by recent YSPH graduate Elizabeth M. Kang on childhood asthma has won the ACOG/Roy M. Pitkin Award by the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists.
The winning paper, “Prenatal Exposure to Acetaminophen and Asthma in Children,” was published in 2009 and suggests that acetaminophen use during pregnancy does not increase the risk of asthma in children. The drug is widely used for pain relief.
The $5,000 award recognizes outstanding research published in Obstetrics & Gynecology, a leading journal in the field. Each year, a panel of the journal’s former editorial board selects the top four articles of the year.
Kang graduated with an M.P.H. degree in May 2009 and is a former student of Professor Michael B. Bracken in the division of Chronic Disease Epidemiology. The research formed Kang’s thesis work which was awarded the Dean’s Prize by YSPH. The study focused on a large cohort of women with data collected and housed at the Yale Center for Perinatal, Pediatric and Environmental Epidemiology (CPPEE). The women were followed throughout their pregnancies and their children were followed for six years, in an effort to elucidate the genetic and environmental risk factors for childhood asthma. Kang’s research looked at the association of acetaminophen use in pregnancy and risk of asthma in the children. Her analysis did not support an association and her publication showed that earlier contrary reports may have resulted from residual confounding.
Given that acetaminophen is the drug of choice for pain relief in pregnant women, Kang’s study provides reassurance that antenatal acetaminophen use has limited, if any, effects on asthma development in children.
Kang is currently working at the Food and Drug Administration. Other authors on the paper were Lisbet Lundsberg, Ph.D., M.P.H., and Jessica Illuzzi, M.D., M.S., from the CPPEE.