A study that involved combing through more than 50 years of data to assess the link between asthma and daycare and preschool attendance may provide welcome reassurance to working parents.

Early child care does not boost children’s asthma risk, according to the study led by researchers at UCSF and UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital San Francisco.

In fact, attending a child care facility is protective of asthma in children ages 3 to 5, lowering their odds of developing asthma by 34 percent, the authors concluded in the study publishing April 9, 2018, in the Journal of Asthma.

However, the results weren’t all good news, noted senior author and pediatrician Michael Cabana, MD, MPH, chief of the UCSF Division of General Pediatrics. While early child care did not increase asthma risk in children aged 6 to 18, its protective effect was not sustained in this age group.