Associations between psychosocial stress, child's anxiety, and lung function in mid-childhood

Abstract

Background: Reducing the risk of respiratory disease during the plastic stages of lung development could have long-term health impacts. Psychosocial stress has been previously linked to adverse childhood respiratory outcomes, but the influence of child's anxiety and sex differences has not been completely elucidated.

Objective: To evaluate the association among maternal stress, child anxiety, and lung function in children and to explore differences by sex.

Methods: Cross-sectional analyses included 294 mother-child pairs from the Programming Research in Obesity, Growth, Environment and Social Stressors (PROGRESS) birth cohort in Mexico City. Children's lung function was tested once at ages 8 to 13 years of age, and height- and sex-adjusted z-scores were estimated for forced vital capacity, forced expiratory volume in 1 second, forced expiratory volume in 1 second/forced vital capacity and forced expiratory flow between 25% and 75%. Maternal stress was assessed through the Crisis in Family Systems-Revised (CRISYS-R) survey, used to report negative life events experienced in the past 6 months and dichotomized at the median (<3 and ≥3). Child's self-reported anxiety was assessed using the Revised Children's Manifest Anxiety Scale short form and dichotomized at the clinically relevant cutoff (T-score ≥ 60). The association among maternal stress, child anxiety, and lung function outcomes was evaluated using linear models. Effect modification by sex was evaluated with interaction terms and in stratified analyses.

Results: We did not find any association between maternal stress and any lung function outcome. Clinically elevated child anxiety symptoms were associated with lower forced expiratory volume in 1 second (β = -0.36, 95% CI -0.69 to -0.02). We found no evidence of effect modification by sex.

Conclusion: Results highlight the importance of considering childhood mental health in relation to lung function outcomes.