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Does chronic stress predict asthma in adolescents?
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- Author / Creator
- Bahreinian, Salma
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Asthma is a common chronic condition in Canadian adolescents. Stress is a proposed risk factor for asthma development. Allostatic load (AL) is a composite measure of chronic stress exposure, and its role in the development of asthma in adolescents was the focus of this thesis. In study 1, we found a significant positive association between high AL and prevalent/incident asthma in adolescent boys, but not girls. Subsequently, in study 2, the effects of individual biomarkers that comprise AL index and their associations with asthma were evaluated. In boys, a combination of total cholesterol and cortisol predicted non-atopic asthma, whereas total cholesterol and blood pressure predicted atopic asthma. In girls, fasting insulin levels predicted non-atopic asthma. In summary, we demonstrated that sub-clinical levels of biomarkers increase the risk of asthma. These findings highlight simple measures of modifiable risk factors can be used by clinicians to predict asthma in adolescents.
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- Subjects / Keywords
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- Graduation date
- Spring 2012
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- Type of Item
- Thesis
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- Degree
- Master of Science
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- License
- This thesis is made available by the University of Alberta Libraries with permission of the copyright owner solely for non-commercial purposes. This thesis, or any portion thereof, may not otherwise be copied or reproduced without the written consent of the copyright owner, except to the extent permitted by Canadian copyright law.