(Ivanhoe Newswire) -- A fall birthday might make kids oldest in their class at school, but it could also make them more likely to develop asthma.

Children who are born four months before the height of cold and flu season have a greater risk of developing childhood asthma than children born at any other time during the year according to a new study.

Researchers at Vanderbilt University, in Nashville, analyzed the medical records of 95,000 children and their mothers in Tennessee to determine whether date of birth in relationship to the peak in winter reparatory viruses posed a greater risk of childhood asthma. They found having clinically significant bronchiolitis at any age during infancy was associated with an increased risk of childhood asthma, but for autumn babies the risk was greatest.

“Birth during this time conferred a nearly 30 percent increase in odds of developing asthma,” Tina V. Hartert, M.D., M.P.H., principal study investigator and director of the center for Asthma Research at Vanderbilt, was quoted as saying.

Study authors note predicting the peak of respiratory virus season can be difficult because it can vary by up to 10 weeks a year.

SOURCE: American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, 2008