Former President George HW Bush has been admitted to a Houston hospital after experiencing a shortness of breath.

Bush, 90, was taken by ambulance to Houston Methodist Hospital as a “precaution,” according to family spokesman Jim McGrath.

He “will be held for observation, again as a precaution,” McGrath said in a statement on Wednesday.

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Bush spent nearly two months in the same hospital and was discharged in January 2013 after treatment for a bronchitis-related cough and other issues.

The White House said President Barack Obama, who is holidaying in Hawaii, had been notified about Bush’s hospital admission.

“President Obama and the first lady send their good wishes to the former president and the entire Bush family during this holiday season,” said White House spokesman Eric Schultz.

Bush, who can no longer use his legs, made two public appearances in November. He attended an event at Texas A&M University with his son, former President George W Bush, and on November 23 served as the coin toss captain for the Houston Texans during an NFL game honouring the US armed forces.

Bush Snr, the 41st president, had served two terms as Ronald Reagan’s vice-president when he was elected in 1988. Four years later, after a term highlighted by the success of the 1991 Gulf War in Kuwait, he lost to Democrat Bill Clinton amid voters’ concerns about the economy.

He was a naval aviator in World War II – at one point the youngest in the Navy – and was shot down over the Pacific.

The elder Bush has skydived on at least three of his birthdays since leaving the White House. In June, he celebrated his 90th birthday by making a tandem parachute jump near his summer home in Kennebunkport, Maine.

During the winter, Bush and his wife, Barbara, live in Houston.

Bush, also a former US ambassador to China and CIA director, suffers from a form of Parkinson’s disease that has forced him in recent years to use a motorised scooter or wheelchair for mobility.