Care for child

MOTHERS who are unceasingly stressed may increase the likelihood of asthma in their children, according to a new University of Manitoba study.

Although it’s not precisely clear how maternal distress causes the respiratory condition, unhappy mothers are more probable to smoke and less likely to breastfeed — actions associated with asthma’s development — notes the account in the latest issue of American Journal of Respiratory and dangerous Care Medicine.

The study, which analyzed seven years of health records for almost 14,000 Manitoba children born in 1995, set up that kids whose mothers were chronically distressed during those childhood years had a 25 per cent increased risk of developing asthma, regardless of their background, gender or other acknowledged risk factors. “It is increasingly clear that traditional risk factors do not fully explain the origins of asthma,” said Dr. Anita Kozyrskyj, the study’s lead researcher and a member of the U of M’s faculty of pharmacy.

Kozyrskyj said she and her colleagues determined through the health records whether children had asthma by age seven and related it to maternal distress as defined by doctor visits, hospitalizations and prescription for sadness and anxiety. Maternal distress was categorized by start and duration into four categories: no distress, postpartum suffering, short-term distress and long-term distress.

“And it’s those mothers in the long-term or persistent category who had the greatest number of health-care visits and instruction medications,” Kozyrskyj said. “So that may be an indication of more severe sadness and/or worry.”

Even taking other major risk factors for childhood asthma into account, she said, “the persistent maternal pain measure still is very much linked with the development of asthma at age seven.” She supposed another study is planned to explore the role of despair on childhood asthma, focusing on post-natal screening data and a 25-point checklist.

“This is a better way of identifying mothers who are depressed or anxious,” said Kozyrskyj. One warning to her study on the link between caring stress and asthma is that heredity always plays a crucial role in determining the pathway of asthma in a child, she said.

Asthma is a chronic condition that makes it hard to breathe because the airways are extra sensitive. They can both become inflamed and fill up with mucus or the muscles around the airways can spasm and clutch tighter, leave-taking less room for the air to pass from end to end. The , which killed 287 Canadians in 2003 according to Health Canada, can’t be cured other than can be properly managed with medication and inhalers. It’s closely linked with a family tree which bears associated allergies such as hay fever or eczema.

A recent study has found that junk foods are no longer a treat for children as they simple see them as a part of their standard daily diet, a judgment that will add to the pressure on the British government to tighten advertising regulations on foods high in salt, fat or sugar. According to the study of 500 children aged between seven and 14, carried out by the British Heart Foundation, 82 per cent do not consider crisps a treat; more than half think the same about sweets; while seven in ten do not regard fast food as an infrequent treat. Children should avoid junk food.
“The infestation of artery-clogging foods that make up our children’s everyday diets is putting their hearts and long-term health at risk,” the Foundation’s Director of Prevention and Care, Dr Mike Knapton, was quoted by ‘The Daily Telegraph’ as saying. The charity wants the government to oblige a ban on ads of junk food to children, which it says “creates confusion about what constitutes a normal diet”.

Rules that came into force at the start of the year prevent advertisements for junk food being broadcast during programmers for under-16s. There is already a ban in place covering the under-10s. “We are reviewing the impact of the current regulations on the nature of advertising. We are taking this seriously and if we do not see significant development in the nature and balance of food encouragement, then we will look at how we can make faster progress.

“We are also developing a complete cross government strategy on fatness which will be published later this year,” a spokesperson for the Department of Health was quoted as saying.