Environmental risk factors for respiratory symptoms and childhood asthma.

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Environmental risk factors for respiratory symptoms and childhood

asthma.

Kasznia-Kocot J, Kowalska M, Gorny R,

Niesler A, Wypych-Slusarska A.

Ann Agric Environ Med. 2010 Dec;17(2):221-9.

Department of Epidemiology, School of Public

Health, Medical University of Silesia, Piekarska 18, 41-902 Bytom, Poland.

kasznia_kocot@....

Abstract

The presented cross-sectional study, comprised a group of 1,130

children from 13-15 years of age living in Upper Silesia, Poland, was undertaken

to ascertain the role of environmental factors in the development of adverse

respiratory health outcomes. To estimate the prevalence of these effects, the

ISAAC questionnaire supplemented by questions related to risk factors was used.

Bronchial asthma was identified in 4.5 percent of the children, asthma diagnosed

by physicians in 8.7 percent, and prevalence of wheezing in the previous 12

months in 12.6 percent. The highest probability of wheezing was found in

children with maternal genetic propensity (such as asthma, allergy), exposed to

maternal smoking, or was connected with household risk factors such as the

presence of dampness/mould or living in 50-year-old building. Female gender and

attendance at nursery school were shown to be protective factors against

wheezing. The probability of asthma was nearly twice as high in children

residing in damp/mouldy dwellings, heated by coal-fired furnaces and living in

the immediate vicinity of a road with heavy traffic. This study revealed that

exposure to indoor (tobacco smoke, coal stove emission, mould or dampness in

dwelling) and outdoor (traffic pollution) air contaminants are major

environmental factors responsible for adverse respiratory health effects in

children.

PMID: 21186763 [PubMed - in

process]