Columbia Study Finds Maternal Stress Increases Asthma

Columbia Study Finds Maternal Stress Increases Asthma
Mothers with high levels of stress, anxiety, or depression during pregnancy lead to a higher risk of the child developing asthma, according to a study recently. (photos.com)
Catherine Yang
7/10/2011
Updated:
10/1/2015

<a><img src="https://www.theepochtimes.com/assets/uploads/2015/09/stk65171cor.jpg" alt="Mothers with high levels of stress, anxiety, or depression during pregnancy lead to a higher risk of the child developing asthma, according to a study recently.  (photos.com)" title="Mothers with high levels of stress, anxiety, or depression during pregnancy lead to a higher risk of the child developing asthma, according to a study recently.  (photos.com)" width="320" class="size-medium wp-image-1801105"/></a>
Mothers with high levels of stress, anxiety, or depression during pregnancy lead to a higher risk of the child developing asthma, according to a study recently.  (photos.com)
Problems like asthma and other respiratory health problems in a young child may have started long before they were born, according to a study recently published by Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health. Mothers with high levels of stress, anxiety, or depression during pregnancy lead to a higher risk of the child developing asthma.

According to Marilyn Reyes, the lead author of the study, understanding the link between maternal health and a child’s respiratory health is an important part in developing strategies to prevent asthma.

“Approximately 70 percent of mothers who said they experienced high levels of anxiety or depression while they were pregnant reported their child had wheezed before age 5,” said Reyes in a press release.

The study included 279 inner-city African-American and Hispanic women between 18 and 35 during pregnancy until after birth, and is the first to associate maternal psychological stress to pediatric wheezing in minorities.

“While low-income families experience stressors from many sources that may contribute to adverse health outcomes in children, understanding how children’s health may be influenced by these factors is an important step in developing effective interventions,” said Rachel Miller, allergist and senior author of the study in a statement.

Children (under 18) with asthma in households with annual incomes under $35,000 total over 23,000 whereas there are 9,000 children with asthma in households with annual incomes between $75,000–$99,999, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) 2009 report.

“The symptoms of pediatric asthma can range from a nagging cough that lingers for days or weeks to sudden and scary breathing emergencies,” Miller wrote.

The link between prenatal stress and persistent or transient wheezing in the children in the women participating in the study was high, but no link was found between maternal stress after birth and asthma in the children.

According to the CDC, over 7.1 million children under 17 in the United States have asthma as of 2009, and non-Hispanic African-American children were the most likely to be diagnosed with asthma. African-American children ever diagnosed with asthma made up 22 percent while Hispanic children made up 13 percent and non-Hispanic Caucasian children were 12 percent.

Children in the Northeast and Midwest (11 percent) were much more likely to continue to have asthma than children in the West (7 percent) or South (10 percent), according to the CDC’s 2009 statistics.

Symptoms of asthma to look for in young children include coughing, especially at night, a whistling or wheezing sound when exhaling, trouble breathing or fast breathing that causes the neck to tighten, and frequent colds that settle in the chest.

Catherine Yang is a reporter for The Epoch Times based in New York.
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