by Case Adams, Naturopath
Researchers from the Rush University Medical Center have found that stress in the home and depression among parents increase the risk of asthma and asthmatic attacks among children.
The researchers – part of the Project CURA: The Community United to Challenge Asthma – investigated and studied the homes of Puerto Rican children between the ages of 5 and 18 years old with asthma within the city of Chicago. The research was funded by the National Heart Lung and Blood Institute of the National Institutes of Health.
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Curiously, Puerto Rican children have a far greater risk of asthma than do white, black or Hispanic children. An asthma study published in the Journal Pediatrics in 2006 found that 26% of Puerto Rican children had been diagnosed with asthma between 1997 and 2001 while only 12% of white children, 16% of black children, 12% of Hispanic children had been diagnosed with asthma during the same period. This means that Puerto Rican children have more than double the asthma rates of most other children.
This of course has led researchers to try to discover why Puerto Rican children have such higher rates.
The researchers analyzed asthmatic children in six communities in Chicago. They recruited children and parents from schools and hospitals. Of the 229 children who were screened, 101 were randomized, with 51 being of elementary school age and 50 kids in high school.
The researchers assessed children with skin testing for allergy triggers and conducted saliva testing, while studying their trigger mechanisms using home studies.
Depression and stress provide biggest common factors outside drugs and toxins
The research found out that outside the factors related to medication use or allergic irritants in the home or school, more asthma diagnoses and more asthmatic attacks were attributed to caregiver (parent or otherwise) depression; parents or caregivers who were noticeably stressed (perceivable by the child); and among children and parents without private insurance.
The fact that these conditions were found to significantly affect the rate of asthma attacks and the level of diagnosis indicates clearly the influence a child’s home environment has upon the child’s respiratory health.