|
Parental Stress Increases Kids’ Risk of Asthma |
Asthma is one of the most common ailments of young childhood – rates
among children under age 5 have risen 160% from 1980 to 1994 in the
U.S. What sets off these bouts of wheezing and shortness of breath
(besides allergies, pollution or strenuous exercise) are not well known.
In a study of nearly 2,500 non-asthmatic children ages 5 to 9, researchers have found that the level of stress reported by the children's parents had a significant impact on the kids' susceptibility to other common contributors to asthma – namely, exposure to pollution from traffic and secondhand smoke. Scientists found that children whose parents described themselves as stressed and anxious were 50% more likely to develop asthma than kids with non-stressed parents, at least when these youngsters were also exposed to pollution in a high-traffic, urban setting.
Parental stress alone did not increase the children's risk, but the combination of living in a household with high stress levels and being exposed to pollutants from traffic in the environment was sufficient to trigger the disease. The study found similar results with exposure to tobacco smoke.
Time.com
|
