Dataset Information

Difficult Family Relationships, Residential Greenspace, and Childhood Asthma.

ABSTRACT:

Background and objectives

Both the social environment and the physical environment are increasingly recognized as important to childhood diseases such as asthma. This study tested a novel hypothesis: that living in areas high in greenspace may help buffer the effects of difficult family relationships for children with asthma.

Methods

A total of 150 children (ages 9-17), physician-diagnosed with asthma, participated in this study. To assess difficulties in parent-child relationships, parents and children completed measures of harsh/inconsistent parenting and parental hostility. Residential greenspace was calculated by using satellite-derived Normalized Difference Vegetation Index with a buffer of 250 m around the residential address. Outcomes included both clinical and biological measures: asthma control and functional limitations, as well as airway inflammation (fractional concentration of exhaled nitric oxide) and glucocorticoid receptor expression in T-helper cells.

Results

After controlling for potential confounding variables, including family income, child demographics, and child medical variables, few main effects were found. However, interactions between residential greenspace and difficult family relationships were found for asthma control (P = .02), asthma functional limitations (P = .04), airway inflammation (P = .007), and the abundance of glucocorticoid receptor in T-helper cells (P = .05). These interactions were all in a direction such that as the quality of parent-child relationships improved, greenspace became more strongly associated with better asthma outcomes.

Conclusions

These findings suggest synergistic effects of positive environments across the physical and social domains. Children with asthma appear to benefit the most when they both live in high greenspace areas and have positive family relationships.

SUBMITTER: Chen E

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5369675 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Publications

Difficult Family Relationships, Residential Greenspace, and Childhood Asthma.

Chen Edith E Miller Gregory E GE Shalowitz Madeleine U MU Story Rachel E RE Levine Cynthia S CS Hayen Robin R Sbihi Hind H Brauer Michael M

Pediatrics 20170309 4

<h4>Background and objectives</h4>Both the social environment and the physical environment are increasingly recognized as important to childhood diseases such as asthma. This study tested a novel hypothesis: that living in areas high in greenspace may help buffer the effects of difficult family relationships for children with asthma.<h4>Methods</h4>A total of 150 children (ages 9-17), physician-diagnosed with asthma, participated in this study. To assess difficulties in parent-child relationship ...[more]

PMID: 28280210

Similar Datasets

Project description:BackgroundLiving in a greener neighbourhood may reduce the risk of developing incident cardiovascular disease, but evidence is limited by reliance on cross-sectional comparisons. We use data from a longitudinal study with a time-independent measure of risk to explore the association between exposure to greenspace and cardiovascular disease.MethodsData was from the European Prospective Investigation of Cancer Norfolk UK cohort, baseline 1993-1997 (n = 24,420). Neighbourhoods were defined as 800m radius zones around participants' home, according to their home postcode (zip code) in the year 2000. Greenspace exposure was identified using classified satellite imagery. Adjusted Cox proportional hazards regression examined associations between greenspace and incident cardiovascular disease. Mediation analysis assessed if physical activity mediated associations, whilst modification by rurality, socio-economic status and age was explored.ResultsThe mean age of participants was 59.2 years at baseline, 54.7% were female, and mean follow-up time was 14.5 years. Individuals living in the greenest neighbourhood quartile had a 7% lower relative hazard of developing cardiovascular disease than other neighbourhoods (HR 0.93; 95% CI 0.88, 0.97; p = 0.003) after adjusting for age, sex, BMI, prevalent diabetes and socio-economic status (SES). Physical activity did not mediate the relationship (greenest compared to the least green quartile HR 0.99; 95% CI 0.97, 1.01; p = 0.416). Models predicted incidence of cardiovascular disease in the least green neighbourhoods (19.4% greenspace on average) would fall by 4.8% (95% CI 1.6%, 8.2% p = 0.003) if they were as green as the average neighbourhood (59.0% greenspace). Occupation moderated the relationship, whereby exposure to greenspace was not associated with incident CVD for participants engaged in manual occupations.ConclusionsGreener home neighbourhoods may protect against risk of cardiovascular disease even after accounting for SES, whilst the mechanism does not appear to be strongly associated with physical activity. Putative causal mechanisms require investigation.

Dataset Information

Difficult Family Relationships, Residential Greenspace, and Childhood Asthma.

Background and objectives

Methods

Results

Conclusions

Publications

Difficult Family Relationships, Residential Greenspace, and Childhood Asthma.

Similar Datasets

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