Association of maternal depression and allergic diseases in Korean children

An association between childhood allergic disease and parental psychological disorders has been reported. However, little is known about the relationship between childhood allergic disease and maternal depression. This study was performed to determine if there is an association between childhood allergic disease and maternal depression.

Data were acquired from 13,782 subjects (8091 mothers) ages < 18 years who participated in the Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys, which was conducted from 2007 to 2014. The presence of allergic disease (asthma or atopic dermatitis) and depression was based on self-reported physician diagnosis in the health interview surveys.

Logistic regression analyses showed maternal depression was significantly associated with single marital status (separated or divorced, adjusted odds ratio [aOR] 2.204 [95% confidence interval {CI},1.256-3.867]), less than middle school graduated level (aOR 2.959 [95% CI, 1.514-5.781]), middle school graduated educational level (aOR 2.420 [95% CI, 1.355-4.319]), being a current smoker (aOR 2.257 [95% CI, 1.481-3.438]), being an ex-smoker (aOR 2.533 [95% CI, 1.506-4.260]), maternal asthma (aOR 2.786 [95% CI, 1.453-5.344]), and maternal hypertension (aOR 1.942 [95% CI, 1.106-3.408]). Maternal depression was significantly associated with children's asthma (aOR 2.028 [95% CI, 1.234-3.335]) and children's atopic dermatitis (aOR 1.755 [95% CI, 1.183-2.602]).

The present study showed maternal depression might be a risk factor for the clinical diagnosis of asthma and atopic dermatitis in Korean children.