B3736 - Lifecycle The role of maternal eating disorders in childhood wheezing asthma and lung function - 15/03/2021
Maternal mental disorders have been shown to influence foetal development, increase the risk of pregnancy complications, and the risk of several perinatal and childhood outcomes, including wheezing and asthma. To date asthma research has been predominantly focused on the most frequent mental disorders, such as depression and anxiety, showing that these two disorders and broadly-defined maternal stress increase the risk of childhood respiratory diseases, most likely through the activation of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis. The low prevalence of eating disorders, especially during pregnancy, makes challenging single study analyses, and collaborative projects that involve birth cohorts with prospectively collected data represent the best setting for elucidating the association between maternal eating disorders and childhood respiratory outcomes. In this project we will estimate the associations of maternal lifetime eating disorders with childhood preschool and school-age wheezing and asthma, and with childhood/adolescent lung function in several cohorts participating in the EU Child Cohort Network.