The social construction of childhood asthma: Changing explanations of the relationship between socioeconomic status and asthma

Stigma and self-esteem in patients of bronchial asthma

Asthma is a debilitating chronic disease that renders individuals physically as well as mentally sick. The perception of stigmatization further leads to inappropriate control of asthma resulting in a bidirectional relationship. A prospective, cross-sectional study was conducted in a tertiary care centre of semi urban area of north India during 2021-2022. Three hundred cases of bronchial asthma and 50 healthy controls were enrolled. The asthma control test (ACT) was used to evaluate the control of asthma. Stigma and self-esteem were measured with the use of 28 item self-stigma scale, Rosenberg self-esteem scale, and stigma-related social problem scale (SPSS). The impact of sociodemographic and clinical profiles on stigma and self-esteem was evaluated. Correlation of different scales with each other was done along with. The mean age of asthmatic patients was 47.41±15.507 years with 56% being females; 49.3% of patients were well controlled and 36.3% were partly controlled. Positive subscales of 28 item self-stigma scale, Rosenberg self-esteem scale and SSPS showed statistically significant differences between cases and controls (p<0.001). ACT significantly correlated with 28 item self-stigma scale, Rosenberg self-esteem scale and SSPS, and all three stigma and self-esteem scales correlated significantly with each other.

Associations between postpartum depressive symptoms and childhood asthma diminish with child age

BACKGROUND

Affecting 19% of women, postpartum depression is a major concern to the immediate health of mothers and infants. In the long-term, it has been linked to the development of early-onset asthma at school entry, but only if the depression persists beyond the postnatal period. No studies have tested whether associations with postpartum depressive symptoms and early-onset asthma phenotypes persist into later school age.

OBJECTIVE

To determine associations between maternal postpartum depressive symptoms and childhood asthma between the ages of 5-10 by using a nested longitudinal design.

METHODS

Data were drawn from the 1994-2004 administrations of the Canadian National Longitudinal Survey of Children and Youth, which tracks the health of a nationally representative sample of children in Canada. Child asthma was diagnosed by a health professional, and maternal depressive symptoms were assessed by the Centre for Epidemiological Studies Depression scale. Analyses were conducted by using a multilevel modelling approach, in which longitudinal assessments of asthma in 1696 children were nested within the exposure of postpartum depression.

RESULTS

Postpartum depressive symptoms had a 1.5-fold significant association with childhood asthma between the ages 6-8. This was independent of male sex, maternal asthma, non-immigrant status, low household socioeconomic status, being firstborn, low birthweight, low family functioning and urban-rural residence, of which the first 4 covariates elevated the risk of asthma. Statistical significance was lost at age 8 when maternal prenatal smoking replaced urban-rural residence as a covariate. At ages 9-10, an association was no longer evident.

CONCLUSIONS AND CLINICAL RELEVANCE

Women affected by postpartum depressive symptoms are concerned about long-term health effects of their illness on their infants. Although postpartum depressive symptoms were associated with school-age asthma at ages 6 and 7, this association diminished later. Both home and school life stress should be considered in future studies on asthma development later in childhood.

Association between socioeconomic status and the development of asthma: analyses of income trajectories

OBJECTIVES

Using data on 2868 children born in the Western Australian Pregnancy Cohort (Raine) Study, we examined the association between changes in family socioeconomic status and childhood asthma.

METHODS

We determined the likelihood (odds ratio) of a child having asthma at ages 6 and 14 years for 4 family-income trajectories (chronic low, increasing, decreasing, and never low) over the child's lifetime. The trajectories were created from longitudinal latent-class models.

RESULTS

We found a 2-fold increased risk of asthma at age 14 years among children who had lived in a low-income family since birth, especially for girls. Asthma was less likely to occur in children born to single parents; income rose over time in many of these families. Compared with children in chronic low-income families, children in households with increasing incomes had a 60% lower risk of asthma. Single-point measures of low income were not found to be associated with asthma.

CONCLUSIONS

Chronic exposure to a low-income environment from birth was associated with the development of persistent asthma. There was also a protective effect against asthma among those children whose families had moved out of poverty.

Continued exposure to maternal distress in early life is associated with an increased risk of childhood asthma

RATIONALE

Evidence is emerging that exposure to maternal distress in early life plays a causal role in the development of childhood asthma.

OBJECTIVES

Because much of the data are from high-risk cohorts, we undertook a birth cohort study in a complete population of children to test this association.

METHODS

Using Manitoba, Canada's, health care and prescription databases, this longitudinal study assessed the association between maternal distress during the first year of life and onward, and asthma at age 7 in a 1995 birth cohort of 13,907 children.

MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS

Maternal distress was defined on the basis of health care or prescription medication use for depression or anxiety. Asthma status was derived from health care and prescription records for asthma, using a definition validated by comparison to pediatric allergist diagnosis. Multiple logistic regression was used to determine the likelihood of asthma (odds ratio [OR], 95% confidence interval [95% CI]). Independent of well-known asthma risk factors, our population-based study of a non-high-risk cohort demonstrated an increased risk of childhood asthma (OR, 1.25; 95% CI, 1.01-1.55) among children exposed to continued maternal distress from birth until age 7. Exposure to maternal depression and anxiety limited to the first year of life did not have a demonstrable association with subsequent asthma. Of interest, we observed that the risk of asthma associated with continued maternal distress was increased in children living in high- versus low-income households (OR, 1.44; 95% CI, 1.12-1.85).

CONCLUSIONS

Maternal distress in early life plays a role in the development of childhood asthma, especially if it continues beyond the postpartum period.