Association between child asthma control and maternal mental health in Alagoas, Brazil

Introduction Maternal mental health is very important to manage children with chronic health problems. Objective To evaluate the role of maternal common mental disorders (CMD) in the control of asthma in children by taking the maternal stressful life events (SLE) into account. Aims To improve the management of childhood asthma by using a psychosocial approach. Methods Cross-sectional study involving mother-asthmatic child dyads assisted in paediatric pulmonology outpatient clinics. To characterize maternal CMD, the Self-report questionnaire (SRQ–20) with cut-off 7/8 was used. The global initiative for asthma control (GINA) questionnaire was used to define controlled and uncontrolled patients. The SLE questionnaire was also used. Results Table 1 suggests association between uncontrolled asthma with asthma severity and SLE, and a borderline association between uncontrolled asthma and maternal CMD. Table 2 indicates that, considering all independent variables simultaneously, asthma severity is the only variable statistically significant. It is also possible that with a larger sample size, maternal CMD and SLE would also become statistically significant. Conclusions The frequency of uncontrolled asthma is associated with asthma severity and tended to be higher in children whose mothers had CMD and were exposed to SLE.