"The results show the importance of following up patients with exposure to whooping cough in childhood, particularly pregnant women," says Luciana Quaranta, the PhD candidate at Lund University behind the findings.

The landmark study used a globally unique database, the Scanian Economic Demographic Database, based on data from Sweden's extensive population registers. Quaranta mapped five communities between 1813 and 1968, in an effort to understand how conditions at birth, such as socioeconomic status and exposure to infectious diseases, affect us later in life.

Whooping cough, or pertussis, was widely considered to have been all but eradicated in many developed countries until recently. The UK, the US and Australia have all seen outbreaks of the disease in the past two years.