Stress trigger for kids' asthma
03 December 2004

Stressful events in a child's life can increase the risk of them having an asthma attack by almost five times, according to a new study.

Moving house, births, deaths and parental separation were some of the events found by scientists at University College London, to increase the likelihood of youngsters with asthma suffering an attack.

Doctors studied a group of 60 children aged 6-13 who had been diagnosed with asthma for at least three years. Their symptoms ranged from mild to severe, but all were taking inhaled steroids. Over an 18-month period the children kept asthma diaries, recording their symptoms, attacks and their peak flow levels, which measure lung strength. They and their parents also answered questionnaires about stressful life events during this period.

The researchers found that the chances of the children having an asthma attack increased fivefold during the two days following a traumatic event, and almost doubled 5-7 weeks afterwards.

'The immediate and delayed effects of stressful life events on children's asthma exacerbations identified in this analysis are likely to be due to different underlying mechanisms,' said lead author of the study, Dr Seija Sandberg.

'There is a need for more prospective studies of sufficient size and duration to allow more detailed investigation of both the short-term effects of stress on asthma and airway function, evident within days, and the longer-term effects evident weeks to months later.'

'Our research shows that 69% of people with asthma say stress triggers their symptoms,' said Martin Dockrell, Asthma UK's Assistant Director of Policy & Public Affairs. 'What is particularly interesting about this study is that it shows there can be delayed risk period which can result in an exacerbation weeks after the event.'