ANXIETY, DEPRESSION AND ASTHMA IN PUERTO RICAN YOUTH

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DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): This application responds to NIMH Program Announcement (PA) 02-047, Research on Co-Morbid Mental and Other Physical Disorders. Associations between child and adolescent psychiatric and psychological problems and parent reports of asthma have been described in the literature, and there is some evidence that the prevalence of asthma and its association with mental disorders is particularly striking in Puerto Rican youth. However, the methodological designs of previous studies have been largely limited to the use of clinical samples, cross-sectional studies, and the use of non-standardized or otherwise compromised measures of psychiatric disorders or asthma in youth. These limitations prevent interpretation of the associations in the community. The proposed study overcomes many of these limitations and would establish the magnitude of associations between anxiety and depressive disorders and asthma in Puerto Rican youth, and it would also determine the associations between caregivers' mental disorders and risk for asthma in the sample of children and adolescents. Further, it would determine the prospective relations between caregiver psychopathology, stressors, functioning and the management of childhood asthma. The study builds on two previously collected waves of data of Puerto Rican youth (R01-MH054827; Dr. Glorisa Canino), from 1999-2001. It would collect a new, third wave of data on child/adolescent and caregiver psychiatric disorders, asthma prevalence and severity, and psychosocial problems in a stratified sample of 700 youth from the original cohort. We will also take a stratified sample of 200 of the 700 subjects for spirometry testing and medical chart review. The proposed study will allow us to begin to investigate the mechanisms and clinical management consequences of co-morbid asthma and mental disorders. Overall, this study will provide useful information on two major public health problems for Hispanic youth, mental health and asthma, and begin to investigate the links between theses two critical public health issues.