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Allergy & Asthma Advocate: Summer 2006
Socioeconomic status, stress and childhood asthma A variety of explanations have been proposed for the SES gradient in asthma morbidity. These include greater exposure to allergens, reduced access to care, and gene-by-environment interactions. Recently, explanations have begun to focus on the role of psychosocial factors. Stress, in particular, has been suggested to be an important contributor to asthma. Researchers found:
These findings provide some of the first empirical evidence connecting factors across epidemiological, psychological, and biological levels of analysis. The findings suggest that growing up in a lower SES family is associated with both experiencing greater chronic life stress and being more likely to perceive a given situation as threatening. In turn, these stress experiences are associated with dysregulated immune processes that may have implications for exacerbations of clinical symptoms in children with asthma and high stress. These associations among SES, psychological stress, and immune pathways suggest that the experience of stress, particularly among lower SES children, has implications for childhood asthma morbidity. Many children with moderate-to-severe reactions to insect stings aren’t getting treatment at a hospital
Insect sting is one of the most common causes of anaphylaxis (a severe and potentially fatal allergic reaction) worldwide and is frequently unrecognized by patients and their physicians. Yael Graif, MD, Rabin Medical Center, Petah Tiqva, Israel, and colleagues analyzed the results of a questionnaires completed by more than 10,000 Israeli children ages 13 and 14 to see how often they had been stung by insects, how severe a reaction they had to the sting, and if they were treated at a hospital. Researchers found:
According to Graif, researchers recommend that all patients with a severe reaction to an insect sting should be hospitalized for observation for at least 24 hours. Graif and colleagues concluded that as in other countries, and despite good access to care, children with moderate-to-severe allergic sting reactions do not seek the medical attention that they should. They also noted standardized international studies might be useful in setting guidelines for prevention of the stings, education, and care. |
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Children from lower socioeconomic status (SES) backgrounds are at greater risk for a variety of poor health outcomes, including asthma, according to a new study featured in the May 2006 Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology (JACI).
Edith Chen, PhD, and colleagues tested whether SES was associated with psychological stress and inflammatory markers associated with asthma. 
Only a fraction of children who are stung by insects and exhibit moderate to severe symptoms of an allergic reaction receive treatment at a hospital, according to a new study published in the May 2006 Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology (JACI).