Fw: Exposure to indoor mould and children's respiratory health in the PATY study.

[Guest guest]

        This what I was referring to the other day, I am correcting my statement

to 39% in North America have mold. 

J

Epidemiol Community Health. 2008 Aug;62(8):708- 14.

Links

Exposure to indoor mould and children's respiratory health in the PATY

study.

http://www.ncbi. nlm.nih.gov/ pubmed/18621956? ordinalpos=

20 & itool=EntrezSystem2 .PEntrez. Pubmed.Pubmed_ ResultsPanel. Pubmed_RVDocSum

Antova

T, Pattenden

S, Brunekreef

B, Heinrich

J, Rudnai

P, Forastiere

F, Luttmann-Gibson

H, Grize

L, Katsnelson

B, Moshammer

H, Nikiforov

B, Slachtova

H, Slotova

K, Zlotkowska

R, Fletcher

T.

Environmental Health Unit, NCPHP, Sofia, Bulgaria.

BACKGROUND: Living in a damp or mouldy home reportedly damages

children's respiratory health, yet mould appears not to be a prominent risk

factor in the public's perception. Analyses of data on over 58,000 children from

the Pollution and the Young (PATY) study are presented. In this collaboration,

researchers from 12 cross-sectional studies pooled their data to assess the

effects of air quality on a spectrum of children's respiratory disorders.

METHOD: Original studies were conducted in Russia, North America and 10

countries in Eastern and Western Europe. Pooled analyses were restricted to

children aged 6-12 years. Associations between visible mould reported in the

household and a spectrum of eight respiratory and allergic symptoms were

estimated within each study. Logistic regressions were used, controlling for

individual risk factors and for study area. Heterogeneity between study-specific

results and mean effects (allowing for heterogeneity) were estimated using

meta-analysis. RESULTS: Visible mould was reported by 13.9% of respondents in

Russia, increasing to 39.1% in North America. Positive associations between

exposure to mould and children's respiratory health were seen with considerable

consistency across studies and across outcomes. Confounder-adjusted combined ORs

ranged from 1.30 (95% CI 1.22 to 1.39) for " nocturnal cough " to 1.50 (1.31 to

1.73) for " morning cough " . Evidence of stronger effects in more crowded

households was statistically significant for only asthma and sensitivity to

inhaled allergens. No consistent interactions between mould and age, sex or

parental smoking were found. CONCLUSION: Indoor mould exposure was consistently

associated with adverse respiratory health outcomes in children living in these

diverse countries.

PMID: 18621956 [PubMed - in process]