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Interactions of Parents’ Stress and Environmental Factors on Children’s Eczema: Key Roles in Allergens and Air Pollution

  • Chan Lu 1, 2, 3, *, †,   
  • Yuqing Chen 1, †,   
  • Junlong Yun 1, †,   
  • Jing Ma 1,   
  • Wenying Sun 1,   
  • Wen Deng 1,   
  • Xianglong Xiao 1

Received: 25 Sep 2025 | Revised: 30 Oct 2025 | Accepted: 04 Nov 2025 | Published: 06 Nov 2025

Highlights

  • Parental stresses are associated with children’s physician-diagnosed eczema (PDE)
  • High parental socioeconomic stress increased PDE risk of decoration and allergens
  • High parental social stress elevated the impact of prenatal exposure to NO2 on PDE
  • Parental psychological stress enhanced PDE risk of PM2.5–10 and PM10 exposure
  • There is a “stress-environment interaction” on the development of childhood eczema

Abstract

Increasing evidence linked air pollution and social stress with eczema independently, yet their interactive effects on childhood eczema in early life are unknown. This study aimed to explore the effects of parental stresses and their interactions with interior and extraventricular environmental exposures on preschooler’s physician-diagnosed eczema (PDE). We conducted a mixed cross-sectional and retrospective cohort study involving 8689 children at Changsha in China. Individual data for health information, parental stresses, and interior environments were collected through questionnaires. Individual exposure to temperatures and extraventricular pollutants were computed using the Inverse Distance Weighted (IDW) technique method. Multivariable logistic regression analyses were engaged in this research. We found that childhood PDE was markedly associated with higher education among parents (ORs [95% CI] = 1.94 [1.63–2.31]), while presence of fatigue, headache and distractibility amplified PDE risk (1.89 [1.64–2.18], 1.55 [1.39–1.74] and 1.63 [1.46–1.82]). Higher score of parental psychological stresses was related to elevated risks of PDE. Parents owning lower education or income had higher childhood PDE risk of moldy clothing/bedclothes, nonflowering plants, decoration throughout pregnancy till previous year. PDE risk from PM2.5, NO2 and O3 exposure mainly before birth were higher in families with high social stress. PDE risk from early life exposure to PM2.5, PM2.5–10, PM10, and NO2 during preconception, first year, and entire postnatal stage was higher in parents with psychological stress. Our study indicates that early life exposures to parental stresses as well as their combinations with interior and outdoor pollution and allergen increased risk of childhood PDE, suggesting the “(pre-)fetal origin of eczema” hypothesis through stress-environment interaction.

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10.53941/ges.2025.100009
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Volume 1, Issue 2
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Lu, C.; Chen, Y.; Yun, J.; Ma, J.; Sun, W.; Deng, W.; Xiao, X. Interactions of Parents’ Stress and Environmental Factors on Children’s Eczema: Key Roles in Allergens and Air Pollution. Global Environmental Science 2025, 1 (2), 93–115. https://doi.org/10.53941/ges.2025.100009.
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