Physical And Sexual Abuse Linked To Asthma In Puerto Rican Kids

�Children wHO are physically or sexually abused ar more than twice as likely to have asthma attack as their peers, according to a recent study of urban children in Puerto Rico. In fact, physical and sexual misuse was second only to maternal asthma attack in all the peril factors tried and true, including agnatic asthma and indicators of socioeconomic status.


"To our knowledge, this is the first report card of a direct association between childhood abuse and asthma and asthma-related outcomes," wrote Robyn T. Cohen, M.D., M.P.H., lead generator of the paper of the Channing Laboratory of Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston.


The article was published in the first consequence for September of the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, a publication of the American Thoracic Society.


"We wanted to explore whether exposure to stress and violence is associated with an increased risk of asthma in urban children living in Puerto Rico," said principal investigator, Juan C. Celed�n, M.D., Dr.P.H. "We already know that there is a high prevalence of asthma in Puerto Rican children, and many studies have coupled stress and exposure to violence to health problems in childhood, including asthma attack."


The researchers interviewed 1,353 parent-child pairs in between 2001 and 2003, and re-interviewed nearly 90 percent of the same pairs 2 years later their initial interviews. They used validated questionnaires to elicit information about strain and violence in the children's lives (whenever possible, without the parent demonstrate), and exploited doctor-diagnosed asthma attack, allergic rhinitis, use of prescription medicinal drug for asthma and doctor visits for asthma and/or allergic coryza within the previous class to assess the children's asthma/allergy status.


"Children with a history of abuse had higher frequencies of all outcomes of sake than those without a history of abuse," wrote Dr. Cohen. "After adjusting for relevant covariates, story of misuse was associated with an approximate doubling of the odds of current bronchial asthma, healthcare enjoyment for bronchial asthma, and hypersensitised rhinitis." For example, whereas 15 (20 percent) of the 75 children with a history of step had flow asthma, 128 (11.5 percent) of 1,117 children without history of abuse had current bronchial asthma.


The study did not, however, line up a nexus between neighborhood violence and asthma, as other studies have through with in the past. The researchers suggest that the discrepancy may be the result of the fact that "it is not simply the exposure to a particular stressor but the physiologic response to that stressor that predicts physical health outcomes."


Individual responses to stressors such as community violence will vary, and according to some information, Puerto Rican culture itself may take in protective features. "Latino culture places an emphasis on certain values and societal supports that may buffer the effects of impoverishment and community violence experient by children in Puerto Rico," aforesaid Dr. Cohen. Direct forcible or sexual abuse, however, could campaign a break down of those buffering systems.


The investigators postulate that abuse may alter the