Research profile: Dr Geraldine McNeill

Dr Geraldine McNeill is a Research Fellow in respiratory epidemiology at the University of Aberdeen.Dr Geraldine McNeill is a Research Fellow in respiratory epidemiology at the University of Aberdeen.

Asthma UK is supporting her current research into the early origins of childhood asthma.

Why is asthma so interesting as a research issue?

Childhood asthma has become much more common in the UK in the past 50 years, over a time when the environment in which we live and the lifestyles of children and adults have also changed dramatically.

While pollution, especially air pollution, was initially assumed to be responsible for the increase, there is in fact little evidence to support this, so we are investigating other factors such as declining exposure to infection in childhood and possibly changes in fat and vitamins in the diets of mothers or children.

We also know that asthma and allergies run in families so we need to keep abreast of the major recent developments in understanding of genetic origins of common diseases and try to use the rapid advances in this area in our search for environmental and lifestyle factors which could play a role in prevention.

What do you enjoy most about your work?

Designing studies that are really able to provide clear answers to apparently simple questions is a real challenge for researchers: it requires a mixture of creative ideas and practical know-how. It is also important to work in a team, as two heads are always better than one!

I have been very impressed by the willingness of children, parents and schools to help with research on childhood asthma: it is great to feel that the people whose lives are affected by the condition are backing our efforts to carry out research in this area.

How does Asthma UK help your research?

Asthma UK has provided continuous funding for a study of 2,000 children born in Aberdeen in 1998-9 in whom we are investigating the influence of early diet. They have also funded a survey of 5,000 children aged 7-12 in Aberdeen schools which will take place in 2004 to provide data on the prevalence of asthma to compare with data collected in 1964, 1989, 1994 and 1999 so that we can observe trends with time.

At a time when funding for long-term programmes of medical research is increasingly hard to come by, we really appreciate the way that Asthma UK has allowed us to build on our past work.

What do you hope to achieve as a result of your research?

We would like to be able to make a clear assessment of whether mother's diet in pregnancy or children's diet in early life can influence the development of asthma and related conditions such as hay fever and eczema.

From the school surveys and other work such as a study of childhood asthma in twins, we hope to provide additional information on other possible causes of asthma. In the long run we hope that the work will help to provide useful advice to parents and others on what we can do to prevent development of asthma in children and adults.


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