Where your DNA places you among other people, and the studies behind it.
Not tailored to your result, and not medical advice
Identify and Avoid Triggers: Asthma triggers are highly individual. Common triggers include allergens (dust mites, mold, pet dander, pollen), tobacco smoke, air pollution, cold air, and respiratory infections. Identifying your specific triggers through symptom tracking and, where appropriate, allergy testing enables targeted avoidance strategies. Global Initiative for Asthma (GINA)
Create a Clean Indoor Environment: Indoor air quality has a meaningful impact on asthma control. Use allergen-proof bedding covers, wash bedding weekly in hot water, keep indoor humidity around 30-50%, reduce carpeting where possible, and consider HEPA air filtration. Eliminate indoor smoking entirely. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Exercise Safely: Regular exercise improves cardiorespiratory fitness and supports asthma control. Exercise-induced bronchoconstriction is common in people with asthma but can usually be managed with pre-exercise short-acting inhaler use, an adequate warm-up, and gradual intensity increase. Swimming is often well-tolerated because the air is warm and humid. npj Primary Care Respiratory Medicine
Maintain a Healthy Weight: Obesity is associated with greater asthma severity and more frequent exacerbations, and obesity-related asthma may involve non-eosinophilic inflammatory pathways. In adults with obesity and asthma, weight loss has been linked to improved symptom control and quality of life, with more variable effects on lung function. Discuss a realistic weight-management plan with your clinician. Annals of the American Thoracic Society
How much of this is genetic?
Genetics explains 50% of why people differ in this trait. The rest is environment, daily habits and chance.
Heritability estimate: Ober 2016, Ann Am Thorac Soc
Background and further reading
Asthma is a chronic respiratory condition characterized by airway inflammation, hyperresponsiveness, and reversible airflow obstruction. The Global Burden of Disease study estimated about 260 million people had asthma in 2021 [1]. Roughly 1 in 10 children and 1 in 20 adults are affected, though prevalence varies widely between countries [2]. Symptoms include wheezing, shortness of breath, chest tightness, and coughing, often worse at night or with exercise. Severity ranges from intermittent mild symptoms to life-threatening exacerbations. There is no cure, but current treatments control symptoms in most patients [3].
Genetic Basis: Twin and family studies estimate asthma heritability at roughly 35-70%, varying with age of onset and phenotype, and genetics contributes more to childhood-onset disease than to adult-onset disease [4]. A large multi-ancestry genome-wide association study of 23,948 cases and 118,538 controls confirmed asthma as a highly polygenic trait and identified loci enriched in immune-cell regulatory regions [5]. The strongest signal is the chromosome 17q21 locus (ORMDL3/GSDMB), which is most associated with childhood-onset asthma [4]. Genes in the interleukin-33 pathway, including IL33 and its receptor IL1RL1, and TSLP (thymic stromal lymphopoietin) point to type 2 (Th2) immune signaling, while filaggrin (FLG, also the major eczema gene) implicates epithelial barrier dysfunction [5].
Environmental Factors: Environmental exposures shape both the development of asthma and its day-to-day control. Early-life factors associated with higher risk include respiratory viral infections such as RSV and rhinovirus, tobacco smoke, air pollution, and allergen sensitization [6]. The hygiene hypothesis proposes that reduced microbial exposure in early life favors allergic immune programming; consistent with this, children raised on traditional farms with diverse microbial exposure show lower rates of asthma and allergy [6]. Common triggers of established asthma include allergens (dust mites, pollen, pet dander), cold air, exercise, respiratory infections, and air pollution [3].
The published research behind your score, and the variants it draws on.
44 published scores from 13 studies
The asthma score combines 44 polygenic scores drawn from 13 published studies.
Ohta R (2024). A polygenic score method boosted by non-additive models. Nat Commun: 5k
Goldin J, Cataletto ME. Asthma. StatPearls (NCBI Bookshelf) (2024)
Ober C. Asthma Genetics in the Post-GWAS Era. Annals of the American Thoracic Society (2016)
These traits are influenced by some of the same genes and variants as this one
Crohn's Disease: Chronic inflammatory bowel disease affecting the digestive tract lining.
Content updated August 2026.
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