The impact of stress on the development and expression of atopy

Some Epidemiological Aspects of Bronchial Asthma in Children in Qena Governorate, Egypt

“…This may be explained by greater exposure to allergens, reduced access to care, and gene by environment interactions [36]. Recently, psychosocial factors and stress in low income families, in particular, has been suggested to be an important contributor to asthma [37]. Our study demonstrated that exercise-induced asthma (EIA) occurs in up to (37%) of asthmatic children and this came in agreement with others [38].…”

The Influence of Community Violence and Protective Factors on Asthma Morbidity and Healthcare Utilization in High-Risk Children

“…It is possible that children who are directly or indirectly exposed to violence are more likely to experience asthma symptoms, as the stress associated with those experiences may induce exacerbations through neuroimmunological pathways. 44 Another possible explanation for this lack of relationship may instead be that caregivers have been shown to underestimate severity and underreport asthma symptoms. 45,46 In light of the lack of support for the asthma control and asthma symptoms models, future research would benefit from gathering neighborhood violence exposure data from more than one source (e.g., child and caregiver exposure), adding objective measures of community violence (e.g., census data and police records) and stress (e.g., cytokines), differentiating between indirect violence (e.g., observing violence without actual victimization) and direct violence, and including family level stressors in the model (e.g., caregiver depression, smoking, and intimate partner violence).…”

Stress and the City: Housing Stressors are Associated with Respiratory Health among Low Socioeconomic Status Chicago Children

“…Specifically, it furthers the conceptualization of psychological stress as a "social pollutant" that may be "breathed" into the body. 12,16 When stressors are many or difficult to experience and resources for dealing with them are few, as is often the case for low-income, urban families, psychological morbidity may occur and may in turn produce biological and behavioral changes that impact health. Potential stress pathways by which acute and chronic housing stressors impact general and respiratory health are many.…”

“…11 Psychological stress has been conceptualized as a "social pollutant that when 'breathed into the body' may disrupt biological systems through inflammatory processes". 10,12 Evidence demonstrates that acute and chronic stressors have psychological effects that influence psychologic and physiologic functioning as well as behavior. 13 Studies link stress to asthma onset, exacerbation and phenotypes through hypothesized "dysregulated immunity" mechanisms.…”

“…13 Studies link stress to asthma onset, exacerbation and phenotypes through hypothesized "dysregulated immunity" mechanisms. 10,12,[14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22] Stress experienced by children or their parents may also have indirect effects on asthma by causing health-compromising behaviors and comorbidities that adversely affect disease management. [23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34] Caregiver stress, negative life events, problematic family relationships, parenting difficulties, critical attitudes of one's mother and violence exposure have been related to wheeze, asthma onset, and/or adverse asthma outcomes among infants and youths.…”