Maternal Depressive Symptoms, Lung Function, and Severe Asthma Exacerbations in Puerto Rican Children.

BACKGROUND: Maternal depression has been linked to health care use for asthma in cross-sectional or short-term follow-up studies of school-aged children. OBJECTIVE: To examine whether increased or persistent maternal depressive symptoms over approximately 5 years are associated with severe asthma exacerbations or worse lung function in youth. METHODS: A prospective study of 386 youth living in Puerto Rico, aged 6 to 14 years at a baseline visit and 9 to 20 years at a second visit, was performed. Our exposure of interest was change in persistence of maternal depressive symptoms, assessed at both visits using the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (CESD). Our outcomes of interest were change in percent predicted forced expiratory volume in 1 second (FEV1) and FEV1/forced vital capacity (FVC) between the first and second visits in all subjects, and ≥1 severe asthma exacerbation in the year before the second visit in subjects with asthma. RESULTS: In a multivariable analysis, each 1-point increment in the CESD score was associated with decrements of 0.15% in percent predicted FEV1 (95% confidence interval [CI] = -0.28% to -0.01%; P = .03) and 0.10% in percent predicted FEV1/FVC (95% CI = -0.20% to 0.001%; P = .05) between visits, as well as with 1.03 times increased odds of ≥1 severe asthma exacerbation at the second visit (95% CI for odds ratio = 0.99 to 1.06, P = .09). In a multivariable analysis, the presence of maternal depressive symptoms (a CESD score ≥21 points) at the second visit or at both visits was significantly associated with 3.17 to 3.52 times increased odds of ≥1 severe asthma exacerbation in the year before the second visit. CONCLUSIONS: Increasing or persistent maternal depressive symptoms over approximately 5 years are associated with worse lung function measures and severe asthma exacerbations among Puerto Rican youth, a high-risk population.