Parental Stress And Air Pollution Linked To Children’s Risk For Developing Asthma

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/07/090720215426.htm

ScienceDaily (July 20, 2009) — Children with stressed out parents may be more susceptible to developing asthma associated with environmental triggers such as high levels of traffic-related pollution and tobacco smoke, according to a new study led by researchers at the Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California (USC).

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The results showed that parental stress alone did not increase the risk that children would develop asthma. However, when children had a combination of parents with stressful lives and also lived near high levels of traffic-related pollution, their risk of asthma increased compared with children only exposed to pollution.

“Air pollution can promote inflammatory responses in the airways of the lung, which is a central feature of asthma,” McConnell says. “Stress may also have pro-inflammatory effects and this may help explain why the two exposures together were important.”

Children whose parents perceived their lives as unpredictable, uncontrollable, or overwhelming were susceptible to the effects of pollution, the authors noted. Stress associated with poverty may help explain why asthma rates are often higher in lower socioeconomic status communities.