Exposure to indoor air pollution and the risk of upper and lower respiratory disease in asthmatic children and their mothers

Abstract

Clinical evidence from previous epidemiological studies suggests that there is a link between indoor air pollution and the respiratory illness, the following study aimed to test this hypothesis in asthmatic children and their mothers.  84 asthmatic children and their mothers (12 were asthmatic) were followed up for a period of one year.

In children, this study demonstrated the following findings:

  Positive association between NO₂ (personal & kitchen mean) and the frequency of LRT episodes, but the episodes were milder in those with high kitchen NO₂.

  Positive association between formaldehyde and the frequency of PEF episodes.

  Exposure to CO, PM₁₀ increased the severity of LRT, PEF episodes.  There was a positive association between the severity of URT episodes and kitchen peak NO₂.

  Exposure to PM₁₀ increased the incidence of LRT and PEF episodes following the occurrence of upper respiratory tract episodes.

Among mothers, this study demonstrated the following findings:

  A positive association between dampness and PEF episodes.

  In the analysis of the severity of the episodes, exposure to PM₁₀ and VOCs increased the severity of URT episodes.

  A positive association was demonstrated with PM₁₀ and cotinine.

  Mothers with high kitchen peak NO₂ have reported less URT symptoms, and those with high urine cotinine the episodes were milder and less frequent.  It also seems there were milder LRT symptoms among mothers with high NO2 levels, and the episodes were shorter in relation to formaldehyde.

  PEF episodes were milder among mothers with high indoor exposure to NO₂ (kitchen) and formaldehyde.

Our study suggests that some of the indoor environmental factors have detrimental health effects on asthmatic children and their mothers.

More information

Identifiers

Catalogue record

Export record

ASCII CitationAtomBibTeXData Cite XMLDublin CoreDublin CoreEP3 XMLEndNoteHTML CitationHTML CitationHTML ListJSONMETSMODSMPEG-21 DIDLOpenURL ContextObjectOpenURL ContextObject in SpanRDF+N-TriplesRDF+N3RDF+XMLRIOXX2 XMLReferReference ManagerSimple Metadata