Infecção Materna Associada a Traços de Asma na Infância de 0 a 3 anos: Coorte Brisa- São Luís- MA- BR

Abstract

Asthma is an important chronic disease of the lower airways that mainly affects children and maternal infection can influence the development of childhood asthma traits, which makes it necessary to study this interrelationship. This is a prospective study that aimed to verify the effects of maternal infection on asthma traits in 1,138 children from the BRISA Cohort, in São Luís-Maranhão, using structural equation modeling. In the proposed theoretical model, the exposure variable is a latent variable (Maternal infection) constituted from the indicators vaginal discharge, urinary infection and fever during pregnancy. The outcome variable is also a latent one (Traces of asthma), consisting of the indicators medical diagnosis of asthma, medical diagnosis of rhinitis, episodes of wheezing and emergency for wheezing, in childhood from 0 to 3 years old. Prenatal, birth and childhood variables were included in the study. As a result, it was observed that maternal infection (PC=0.306, p-value=0.001), cesarean delivery (PC=0.205, p-value=0.006) and gestational diabetes mellitus (PC=0.133, p-value< 0.001) were directly associated with childhood asthma traits. Total indirect effects of gestational hypertension were found on childhood asthma traits (CP=0.071, p-value=0.004), mediated by type of delivery (CP=0.034, p- value=0.022) and gestational diabetes (CP=0.009, p-value=0.014). Our findings suggest that maternal infection is associated with childhood asthma traits.