Study Measures Harm of Stress on Children's Health

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Study Measures Harm of Stress on Children's Health

(March 5, 2007) -- WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Children in families facing chronic stress such as conflict between parents or violence in the home become sick more often than children under less stress, according to a study published on Monday

Researchers led by Dr. Mary Caserta at the University of Rochester Medical Center in Rochester, New York, tracked the incidence of fevers in 169 children ages 5-10 from diverse racial and socioeconomic backgrounds.

The researchers said the reason why children from stress-filled families experienced fevers more often was unclear -- and another of their findings was a bit surprising.

While one might have expected that the immune systems of the children under chronic stress might be suppressed as they are in adults, the opposite appeared to be the case. Blood samples showed that these children had stronger functioning of certain key cells in the immune system, the study found.

The researchers were seeking a greater understanding of the effect of chronic stress on children's health.

"I think people on the street believe this unflinchingly -- stress makes you sick," Caserta said in an interview, but she wanted the study to put this to the test.

Parents of the children in the study tracked chronically stressful events in the family and their own symptoms over the course of the study, kept a diary on the health of their kids, and were given digital thermometers.

Conflict in the household, parental anxiety and depression, parental poverty and unemployment, and violence in the home or neighborhood were among these stressful conditions.

Fever was chosen as a benchmark of illness because it is easily measured and not judged subjectively. "As a infectious disease physician, I really like measurements of temperature because they're very objective," Caserta said.

The study, published in the journal Archives of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine, found that the children under stress experienced more fevers than other children.

The researchers now hope to figure out specifically which types of stress increase the frequency of illness, and what biological processes control susceptibility to infections, which cause fevers.

"We really have to get at the mechanisms and what is going on and accounting for these increased illnesses," Caserta said.

Previous studies primarily involving older adults showed that chronic stress drives down the function of immune system cells called natural killer, or NK, cells. But this study yielded a counter-intuitive result in children.

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"We found that the highest-stress kids had the highest amount of NK cell function," Caserta said.

Caserta said more research is needed to figure out what is causing this, but added that it could be because the children's immune systems are still developing.

By: Will Dunham
Source: Reuters

Last updated 03/07

Study Measures Harm of Stress on Children's Health

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