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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2024 Dec 16.
Published in final edited form as: Ann Allergy Asthma Immunol. 2024 Jul 26;133(6):630–640. doi: 10.1016/j.anai.2024.07.023

Table 2.

Summary of studies of exposure to intrafamilial violence and asthma, published since 2020

Type of exposure References Study design and study population Main study findings Strength of the evidence

Intimate partner violence Kariuki, S.M. et al., 202052 Cross-sectional and longitudinal

762 infants aged 6–10 weeks and 485 infants at 12 months from South African mother‐infant dyads, 2012–1015
• In the cross-sectional analyses, prenatal or postnatal IPV was associated with reduced respiratory resistance at 6–10 weeks (β=−0.13, p=0.02), and lower ratio of tPTEF/tE at 12 months (β=−0.04, p=0.03)
• In the longitudinal analyses, prenatal IPV was associated with reduced tPTEF/tE (β=−0.05, p<0.01) and postnatal IPV was associated with decreased FRC (β=−0.09, p<0.01)
• Moderate to high
Intimate partner violence Gartland, D. et al., 202156 Longitudinal birth cohort

615 mother–child dyads
from six public hospitals in Melbourne, Australia, 2003–2005
• Maternal IPV reported when children were aged 1 and/or 4 years was associated with childhood asthma at age 10 years (OR=2.0, 95% CI=1.3–3.2) • Moderate
Intimate partner violence Wang, E. et al., 202161 Cross-sectional, population-based survey

2,634 U.S. adults (71.3% women) aged 18 years and older from 14 States from the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System, 2005
• Any IPV was associated with asthma exacerbations (OR=1.75, 95% CI=1.26–2.43), higher burden of asthma symptoms (OR=2.33, 95% CI=1.53–3.55), and worse asthma control (OR=2.23, 95% CI=1.22–4.09) in men and women
• Both recent (<12 months) and remote (≥ 12 months) exposure to IPV were associated with asthma-related ED/UC visits, other urgent provider visits, and nocturnal awakenings
• Weak to moderate
Domestic violence and abuse (DVA) Nash, K. et al., 202359 Retrospective, population-based cohort

62,888 women aged 18 years and older from a large U.K. primary care database, 1995–2019
• A history of DVA was associated with all atopic diseases (HR=1.52, 95% CI=1.41-.1.64), including asthma (HR=1.69, 95% CI=1.44–1.99)
• Incident DVA during the study period was associated with asthma (HR=1.57, 95% CI=1.12–2.19)
• Weak to moderate
Adverse childhood experiences Thompson, L.A. et al., 202067 Cross-sectional, population-based study

29,450 U.S. children and adolescents (50.5% females) aged 6–17 years from the National Survey of Children’s Health, 2016
• Economic hardship (OR=1.5, 95% CI=1.2–1.9) and living with anyone with mental illness, suicidal, or depressed (OR=1.6, 95% CI=1.1–2.3) was associated with current asthma
• A dose-response relationship was reported, with youth exposed to 4 and more types of ACE having higher odds of asthma (OR=1.9, 95% CI=1.3–2.8) than those exposed to 1 type of ACE (OR=1.3, 95% CI=1.0–1.7)
• Moderate
Adverse childhood experiences Lietźen, R. et al., 202169 Longitudinal, population-based study

21,902 Finnish adults (59% women) aged 20–54 years that were followed for 14 years, 1998–2012
• Exposure to multiple ACEs was associated with adult-onset asthma (HR=1.26, 95% CI=1.16–1.38), compared with exposure to ≤1 ACE.
• The ACE-asthma association was similar in women (HR=1.27, 95% CI=1.14–1.42) and men (HR=1.23, 95% CI=1.05–1.44)
• The excess asthma risk among participants reporting multiple ACEs persisted over 14 years of follow up
• Moderate to high

ACEs=adverse childhood experiences; CI=confidence interval; DVA=domestic violence and abuse, ED=emergency department, UC=urgent care, FRC=functional residual capacity, HR=hazard ratio, IPV=intimate partner violence, OR=odds ratio; tPTEF/tE=time to peak tidal expiratory flow over total expiratory time. Sex-specific associations are shown when reported.