Asthma is the most common long-term condition among children and young people in the UK, with over one million children currently receiving treatment for it.

People with asthma often experience anxiety and depression. We do not fully understand the link between all these conditions. We also don’t know if the relationship between them is causal (having one condition causes the other to develop).

Project aims

We want to identify whether there is a link between asthma and mental health disorders. We will do this by using data from the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC).

ALSPAC is an ongoing study looking at the health of children born to mothers living in a specific part of England in the 90s. The original study has since expanded to include the next generation of children and their families.

We will use the large volume of data available through ALSPAC to explore the links between being diagnosed with asthma as a child and the likelihood of developing anxiety and depression. We will also look at the reverse, ie. whether having anxiety and depression as a child increases your likelihood of later being diagnosed with asthma.

What we hope to achieve

Findings from this study could support the development of clinical trials targeting patients with asthma and anxiety/depression. In turn, this could improve how people living with asthma manage their condition, reduce the number of exacerbations they experience and decrease the number of times they admitted into hospital.

This research is part of a PhD project and is being led by Dr George Nava. It is a collaboration between the respiratory and mental health themes of the Bristol BRC.