ArticleBrain, behavior, and immunity2008
The associations between psychosocial stress and the frequency of illness, and innate and adaptive immune function in children.
Article in Brain, behavior, and immunity, 2008. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 38 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
38 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 98 citations in OpenAlex.
- Effectiveness of hospital clowns for symptom management in paediatrics: systematic review of randomised and non-randomised controlled trials.BMJ (Clinical research ed.) · 2020Pooled it
- Systematic review of pediatric health outcomes associated with childhood adversity.BMC pediatrics · 2018Pooled it
- The Consequences of Foster Care Versus Institutional Care in Early Childhood on Adolescent Cardiometabolic and Immune Markers: Results From a Randomized Controlled Trial.Psychosomatic medicine · 2019Trial
- The Effect of Clown Intervention on Self-Report and Biomarker Measures of Stress and Fatigue in Pediatric Osteosarcoma Inpatients: A Pilot Study.Integrative cancer therapies · 2018Trial
- Families Implementing Resilient Systems Together (FIRST).Children (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- The relationship between household economic shocks, depression, and elevated stress-responsive biomarkers among adolescent girls and young women in rural South Africa (HPTN 068).Journal of affective disorders · 2025Article
- A National Trauma-Informed Adverse Childhood Experience Screening and Intervention Evaluation Project.Children (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Early Life Adversity, Microbiome, and Inflammatory Responses.Biomolecules · 2024Review
- Climate change and extreme weather disasters: evacuation stress is associated with youths' somatic complaints.Frontiers in psychology · 2023Article
- Immune and Epigenetic Pathways Linking Childhood Adversity and Health Across the Lifespan.Frontiers in psychology · 2021Review
- Effect of flipped classroom methodology on the student performance of gastrointestinal and renal physiology entrants and repeaters.BMC medical education · 2020Article
- Early childhood risk exposures and inflammation in early adolescence.Brain, behavior, and immunity · 2020Article
- A systematic review of the impact of psychosocial factors on immunity: Implications for enhancing BCG response against tuberculosis.SSM - population health · 2020Review
- Repeated stress induces a pro-inflammatory state, increases amygdala neuronal and microglial activation, and causes anxiety in adult male rats.Brain, behavior, and immunity · 2020Article
- Adverse childhood experiences and biomarkers of inflammation in a diverse cohort of early school-aged children.Brain, behavior, & immunity - health · 2020Article
- The association between stressful life events and respiratory infections during the first 4 years of life: The Environmental Determinants of Diabetes in the Young study.Stress and health : journal of the International Society for the Investigation of Stress · 2019Article
- Systematic review protocol examining the effectiveness of hospital clowns for symptom cluster management in paediatrics.BMJ open · 2019Article
- T Cell Immunosenescence after Early Life Adversity: Association with Cytomegalovirus Infection.Frontiers in immunology · 2017Article
- Does cytomegalovirus infection contribute to socioeconomic disparities in all-cause mortality?Mechanisms of ageing and development · 2016Article
- Observed parent-child relationship quality predicts antibody response to vaccination in children.Brain, behavior, and immunity · 2015Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
8 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
objectiveFamily processes have a substantial impact on children's social and emotional well-being, but little is known about the effects of family stress on children's physical health. To begin to identify potential links between family stress and health in children, we examined associations between specific aspects of family psychosocial stress and the frequency of illnesses in children, measures of innate and adaptive immune function, and human herpesvirus 6 (HHV-6) reactivation. STUDY
designProspective study of 169 ambulatory school-age children and parents. Parents completed multiple assessments of stress at 7 sequential six-month visits and maintained weekly illness diaries for their children over three years using a thermometer to record fever. Children had blood obtained for HHV-6 and immune function studies at each visit including natural killer (NK) cell function and the percentage of CD4 and CD8 cells associated with immune control of cytomegalovirus (CMV).
resultsParental psychiatric symptoms were associated with a higher frequency of illnesses: for each 1 U increase in symptom score children had an increased 1-year rate of total illnesses of 40% (rate ratio, 1.40; 95% CI, 1.06-1.85) and febrile illnesses of 77% (rate ratio, 1.77, 95% CI, 1.00-3.13). Parental psychiatric symptom scores were also associated with enhanced NK cell function (estimate, 0.15; 95% CI, 0.05-0.26) and increased percentages of CD8+CD28-CD57+ cells in the blood of CMV seropositive children (estimate, 2.57; 95% CI, 0.36-4.79). HHV-6 reactivation was not detected.
conclusionsThere is an association between specific psychosocial stress exposure and rates of illness and immune function in normally developing children.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.