Stressed Out Moms More Likely to Have Kids with Asthma

< Jan. 16, 2008 > -- Children whose mothers are chronically stressed during their early years have a higher asthma rate than their peers, regardless of their income, gender, or other known asthma risk factors.

This is the first study of a non-high-risk group of children to report an association with childhood asthma. 

The findings appeared in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, published by the American Thoracic Society.

“It is increasingly clear that traditional environmental risk factors do not fully explain the origins of asthma,” says lead investigator, Anita Kozyrskyj, Ph.D., Associate Professor in the Faculty of Pharmacy at the University of Manitoba, Canada.

Dr. Kozyrskyj and her colleagues analyzed the medical records of nearly 14,000 children born in Manitoba in 1995 who were continuously registered with Manitoba Health Services until 2003.

They determined whether the children had current asthma at age seven by analyzing records of doctor visits, hospitalizations, and medications in the year of the child’s seventh birthday, and related it to maternal distress as defined by the same criteria (visits and medications), but for depression and anxiety - instead of asthma.

Stress Outweighed Traditional Risk Factors

Even after controlling for the known risk factors of male gender, maternal asthma, urban location, and total health care visits, long-term maternal stress was associated with an increase of nearly a third in the prevalence of childhood asthma.

The study also found that the risk of asthma associated with maternal stress was worse in high-income households and in households with more than one child. These children were more at risk of developing asthma than others in the study.

Is Depression Part of the Problem?

The mechanisms for how maternal distress causes asthma are not well understood. Depressed mothers are more likely to smoke and less likely to breastfeed - actions which are associated with the development of asthma.

However, research has also suggested that depressed mothers are also less likely to interact with their infants.

Animal studies indicate that decreased attentiveness from the mother affects the infant’s stress and immune response, but the same effect in humans has not yet been definitively demonstrated.

Study Limitations

“Our maternal distress measure captured women who sought health care for their depression and anxiety, and thus, our findings may be limited to more severe depression and anxiety,” says Dr. Kozyrskyj.

“We plan to further explore the role of postpartum distress by doing a similar study which will link health care records with public health nurse assessments of depression and anxiety from a provincial postnatal screening program. This will enable us to assess the effects of less severe depression and anxiety during the postpartum period.”

Always consult your physician for more information.

Master Your Anxiety

Anxiety is familiar to everyone due to the many stresses and complexities of modern life. But about 25 percent of US adults have a serious problem with anxiety at some time in their lives.

"Unlike fear, which is usually directed toward a concrete thing or event, such as a snarling dog or not meeting a deadline, anxiety is often nonspecific and can be brought on by worrying about the future, your finances or your health, in general," says Edmund Bourne, Ph.D., author of Coping With Anxiety.

"Anxiety can appear in different forms and at different levels of intensity, and can range in severity from a mere twinge of uneasiness to a full-blown panic attack."

The causes of anxiety are varied and include upsets in brain chemistry, heredity, childhood trauma, abuse, chronic stress, loss of a loved one, and drug and alcohol abuse, to name a few.

"While it can be helpful to identify possible causes of anxiety and address them, you don't need to know why you feel anxious to be helped by practicing coping strategies," says Dr. Bourne.

Some suggested coping strategies include:

take calming breaths
This exercise quickly interrupts the momentum of anxiety symptoms. Breathing from your abdomen, inhale through your nose slowly to a count of five. Pause and hold your breath to a count of five. Exhale slowly to a count of five. Take two normal breaths, then repeat the cycle for three to five minutes.

stop magnifying problems
Exaggerating problems by making them seem bigger and more serious than they are can lead to anxiety. To combat this way of thinking, stop using words such as terrible, awful, or horrendous in relation to events or situations in your life. Instead of saying to yourself, "It's unbearable," or "I can't stand it," try saying, "I can cope" and "I can deal with and survive this."

combat negative self-talk
Positive affirmations can help you cope with anxiety in the moment and over the long-term by helping you change long-standing beliefs, which tend to enable anxiety. To make your thoughts more constructive and supportive, replace or refute each negative statement illustrated below with the one that follows it.

For example, replace "This is unbearable" with "I can learn to cope with this." Or, replace "What if this goes on without stopping?" with "I'll deal with this one day at a time."

Always consult your physician for more information.