Symptoms of depression associated with African-American asthma women

A new study from the Slone Epidemiology Center (SEC) at Boston University, Afro-American women who reported severe symptoms of depression are more predisposed to adulthood asthma, compared to women who reported fewer symptoms of depression. The results of this study are published in the journal Annals of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology and was led by Patricia Coogan, DSc, senior epidemiologist at SEC and research professor of epidemiology at the Boston University School of Public Health. There were 31,848 African-American women involved in the study between 1999 and 2011. The final results prove that as the frequency of depressive symptoms increases, asthma-risk is also higher. “The hypothesized mechanism linking depressive symptoms to asthma incidence is depression-related stress and its physiological consequences, particularly effects on the immune system and the airways. Given the high prevalence of both asthma and of depression in women, the association is of public health importance”, said Coogan.