Kids' Acting Out May Signal Asthma Onset

Young children with eczema or atopic dermatitis are known to have a higher risk of developing asthma. Now, new study results suggest that such children who exhibit behavioral problems are more likely to go on to become asthmatic.

This finding suggests that psychological factors may play a role in the initial onset of asthma.

Dr. Jim Stevenson of the University of Southampton, UK, and colleagues obtained scores from a standardized Behavior Screening Questionnaire (BSQ) for 265 children with atopic dermatitis at the age of 35 to 53 months. Among this group of kids, 150 developed asthma by age 53 months and 115 did not.

Children who developed asthma exhibited more behavior problems, the researchers report in the medical journal Psychosomatic Medicine. Among children without asthma by 35 months, a high BSQ score at that age was linked to the subsequent onset of asthma by 53 months.

"The behavior problem score added significantly to the prediction of asthma onset when known risk factors of asthma ... at age 17 months were taken into account," Stevenson and colleagues write.

There was no evidence that behavior was affected by asthma after it had begun. Hence, behavior problems in this age group are not secondary psychological reactions to the onset of asthma, according to the investigators.

They believe that behavior problems may be a marker for stress in the child's life. Even if such problems do not directly trigger asthma, they can at least alert doctors that a child with atopic dermatitis is at increased risk of becoming asthmatic.

SOURCE: Psychosomatic Medicine, November/December 2003.

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