Telethon Kids Institute, The University of Western Australia, Perth, Australia.
Centre for Child Health Research, The University of Western Australia, Perth, Australia.
PLoS One. 2021 Jan 29;16(1):e0245747. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0245747. eCollection 2021.
Maternal stressful life events during pregnancy have been associated with immune dysregulation and increased risk for asthma and atopy in offspring. Few studies have investigated whether prenatal stress is associated with increased overall or specific infectious diseases in childhood, nor explored sex differences. We sought to examine the relationship between the nature and timing of maternal stress in pregnancy and hospitalisation with infection in offspring.
Between 1989 and 1992, exposure data on stressful life events were collected from pregnant women (Gen1) in the Raine Study at 18 and 34 weeks' gestation and linked to statutory state-wide hospital morbidity data. We examined associations between the number, category and timing of maternal prenatal stress events and overall and clinical groups of offspring (Gen2) infection-related hospitalisation until age 16 years, adjusting for maternal age, education, and smoking in pregnancy in addition to the presence of siblings at birth.
Of 2,141 offspring with complete stress in pregnancy data available, 1,089 had at least one infection-related hospitalisation, with upper respiratory tract infections the most common (n = 556). Each additional stressful life event during pregnancy was associated with increased risk in male offspring for hospitalisation with all infection types. There was little evidence of these associations in girls.
Increased exposure to stressful life events in utero is associated with sex-specific infection-related hospitalisations in childhood. Prenatal stress may adversely affect early immune development for boys and increase the risk of more severe infections. Mechanistic understanding would inform preventative interventions.
妊娠期间母体的应激性生活事件与免疫失调以及后代哮喘和过敏的风险增加有关。很少有研究调查产前应激是否与儿童期总体或特定传染病的增加有关，也没有探讨性别差异。我们试图研究妊娠期间母体应激的性质和时间与后代感染住院的关系。
在 1989 年至 1992 年期间，在 Raine 研究中，在妊娠 18 周和 34 周时收集了孕妇（Gen1）的应激性生活事件暴露数据，并与法定的全州医院发病数据相关联。我们研究了母体产前应激事件的数量、类别和时间与后代（Gen2）感染相关的住院之间的关系，直到 16 岁，除了出生时兄弟姐妹的存在外，还调整了母亲的年龄、教育和怀孕期间的吸烟情况。
在 2141 名具有完整妊娠应激数据的后代中，有 1089 名至少有一次感染相关的住院治疗，上呼吸道感染最常见（n=556）。妊娠期间每增加一次应激性生活事件，男性后代的所有感染类型的住院风险都会增加。在女孩中几乎没有这些关联的证据。
在子宫内暴露于更多的应激性生活事件与儿童期特定性别感染相关的住院治疗有关。产前应激可能对男孩的早期免疫发育产生不利影响，并增加更严重感染的风险。对机制的理解将为预防干预提供信息。
