Allergic disease and risk of stress in pregnant women: a PreventADALL study

Abstract

BackgroundMaternal stress during pregnancy may negatively affect the health of mother and child. We therefore aimed to identify the proportion of women reporting high maternal stress in mid and late pregnancy and explore whether symptoms of maternal allergic disease are associated with perceived maternal stress in late pregnancy.MethodThe population-based Preventing Atopic Dermatitis and Allergy in Children (PreventADALL) study enrolled 2697 pregnant women at their 18-week routine ultrasound examination in Norway and Sweden. Information about sociodemographic factors, symptoms and doctor-diagnosed asthma, allergic rhinitis, atopic dermatitis, food allergy, and anaphylaxis and stress using the 14-item perceived stress scale (PSS) was collected at 18 weeks (mid) and 34 weeks (late) pregnancy. High stress was defined as a PSS score ≥29. Scores were analysed using multivariate logistic and linear regression.ResultsAmong the 2164 women with complete PSS data, 17% reported asthma, 20% atopic dermatitis, 23% allergic rhinitis, 12% food allergy and 2% anaphylaxis. The proportion of women reporting high stress decreased from 15% at mid to 13% at late pregnancy (p<0.01). The adjusted odds ratio for high stress in late pregnancy was 2.25 (95% CI 1.41–3.58) for self-reported symptoms of asthma, 1.46 (95% CI 1.02–2.10) for allergic rhinitis and 2.25 (95% CI 1.32–3.82) for food allergy. A multivariate linear regression model confirmed that symptoms of asthma (β coefficient 2.11; 0.71–3.51), atopic dermatitis (β coefficient 1.76; 0.62–2.89) and food allergy (β coefficient 2.24; 0.63–3.84) were independently associated with increased PSS score.ConclusionAllergic disease symptoms in pregnancy were associated with increased stress, highlighting the importance of optimal disease control in pregnancy.

Infant colic and abdominal pain; associations with infant multimorbidity and maternal perceived stress up to 3 months postpartum—A cross‐sectional/cohort study in the PreventADALL study

“…Maternal perceived stress was assessed using the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS), including 14 questions within domains covering stressors, irritations, poor coping, anger and difficulties (Cohen, 1994; Kamarck et al, 1983), with scores ranging from 0 to 56 (higher scores indicating higher stress level). Based on previous results of stress in pregnancy from the PreventADALL study, we used a cut‐off score of 28 to indicate high stress in the three assessments, as used in other studies (Magi et al, 2020). To assess the association between infant pain and high maternal perceived stress in pregnancy at 18 or 34 weeks and at 3 months postpartum, we recoded three variables: low maternal perceived stress at 3 months (coded 0), high maternal perceived stress at 3 months and low maternal perceived stress in pregnancy (coded 1), and high maternal stress at 3 months and in pregnancy (coded 2).…”

Maternal Stress, Early Life Factors and Infant Salivary Cortisol Levels

“…Maternal perceived stress during pregnancy has also been suggested as a predictor of infant cortisol reactivity after birth and by 10 months of age [16]. In a recent study, we reported that 13-15% of women in the PreventADALL general population-based study experienced perceived high stress in mid-and late pregnancy [17]. However, possible associations between pregnancy-related factors, including maternal perceived stress and maternal saliva cortisol (mSC), birth-related factors, maternal stress post-partum or infant factors and early iSC levels in the general population are not well elucidated.…”

“…A higher score indicates higher perceived stress. With no universally accepted cut-off value for high stress, we used the value identified in a previous report from the PreventADALL study with high perceived stress defined by a score of 29 or higher [17].…”