Stress during pregnancy is linked to a higher risk of asthma and eczema in children, a German study found.
While genetics are a component to this increased risk, investigators looked at 994 children and their mothers to determine what role stress plays.
Expectant mothers were questioned about stressful life events halfway through their pregnancy and again toward the end of pregnancy. Their children were evaluated for asthma, eczema and other allergy-related conditions at age 6 and 14.
The results could "allow clinicians to evaluate future asthma risk in unborn children using a simple life event assessment questionnaire," Dr. Petra Arck told Reuters Health.
Almost one in 10 children in the United States has been diagnosed with asthma, and rates for African-American and Hispanic children are even higher, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which reports that the numbers are rising.
The likelihood of having asthma or eczema as a teenager was considerably higher among children whose mothers were under a lot of stress during the second half of their pregnancies. If a mother experienced just one stressful event, her kids were about twice as likely to have asthma at age 14.
"Life events like money problems, job loss and residential move associated with separation or divorce during pregnancy may well have lasting impact on the socio-economic position of the mother and her child and may, for example, be associated with unfavorable indoor and outdoor exposures throughout the child's life course up to adolescence," said Alet H. Wijga, from the National Institute for Public Health and the Environment in Bilthoven.
The researchers noted that this pattern did not hold true for 6 year olds, or if the mothers did not have asthma themselves.
"I do think the study provides evidence for an association between prenatal adverse life events and the risk for allergic disease in childhood," Wijga said.
