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Background Little is known about the effect of postnatal maternal psychologic problems on the development of childhood atopic disorders. Objectives To assess the association between early life maternal psychologic problems and atopic dermatitis ( AD) in children in a national birth cohort. Methods We used multistage, stratified systematic sampling to recruit 24,200 mother-newborn pairs from the Taiwan national birth registration. Maternal psychologic problems and potential confounders were gathered by the standard questionnaire at 6 months old. At 3 years of age, information about the development of AD was assessed by International Study of Asthma and Allergies in Childhood via home interviews. Multiple logistic regression analysis was performed to estimate the association of postnatal maternal psychologic problems (postpartum depression (PPD) and maternal mental health index) and AD. Results The prevalence of physician-diagnosed AD was 10.5%. PPD increased the risk of subsequent physician-diagnosed AD in children after adjusting for potential confounders and other maternal mental health index ( aOR = 1.42, 95% CI = 1.21-1.66). We observed that the risk of AD associated with PPD was not confounded by other social demographic factors such as maternal AD, maternal education, family income, breastfeeding, day care, and number of siblings. Conclusions Postpartum depression increased the risk of childhood AD even when other maternal mental health index and social demographic factors are considered. Early intervention of PPD might be helpful for AD prevention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background Hereditary and environmental factors contribute to the occurrence of atopic dermatitis (AD). However, the interaction of these two factors is not totally understood. Objectives To evaluate the early risk factors for infantile AD at the age of 6 months and to develop a predictive model for the development of AD. Methods In 2005, a representative sample of mother and newborn pairs was obtained by multistage, stratified systematic sampling from the Taiwan national birth register. Information on hereditary and environmental risk factors was collected by home interview when babies were 6 months old. Multivariate regression analysis was applied to determine the risk factors for AD in the infants. Results A total of 20 687 pairs completed the study satisfactorily. AD was diagnosed in 7·0% of 6-month-old infants by physicians. Parental asthma, atopic dermatitis and allergic rhinitis, and maternal education levels were risk factors for AD in infants. Among environmental factors, fungus on walls at home and renovation/painting in the house during pregnancy were significantly associated with early infantile AD. Using these factors, the probability of having infantile AD was estimated and grouped into low, high and very high. With five runs of tests in mutually exclusive subsets of this population, the likelihood of AD for 6-month-old infants was consistent in all the groups with the predictive model. The highest predicted probability of AD was 70·1%, among boys with maternal education levels > 12 years, both parents with AD, renovation and painting of the house during pregnancy and fungus on walls at home. The lowest probability was 3·1%, among girls with none of the above factors. Conclusions This investigation provides a technique for predicting the risk of infantile AD based on hereditary and environmental factors, which could be used for developing a preventive strategy against AD, especially among those children with a family history of atopy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]