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American Journal of Epidemiology Advance Access published online on August 10, 2005

American Journal of Epidemiology, doi:10.1093/aje/kwi238
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American Journal of Epidemiology Copyright © 2005 by the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health All rights reserved
Received February 8, 2005
Accepted April 20, 2005

Article

Gas Cooking and Smoking Habits and the Risk of Childhood and Adolescent Wheeze

Georges de Bilderling 1*, Anoop J. Chauhan 2, Jim A. R. Jeffs 3 {dagger}, Nicholas Withers 1, Sebastian L. Johnston 4, Stephen T. Holgate 5, and Joanne B. Clough 1

1 Department of Child Health, Southampton General Hospital, Southampton, United Kingdom
2 Respiratory Centre, Queen Alexandra Hospital, Portsmouth, United Kingdom
3 Department of Medical Statistics and Computing, Southampton General Hospital, Southampton, United Kingdom
4 National Heart and Lung Institute and Wright Fleming Institute of Infection and Immunity, Imperial College London, London, United Kingdom
5 Respiratory Cell and Molecular Biology Research Division, Southampton General Hospital, Southampton, United Kingdom

* To whom correspondence should be addressed.
Georges de Bilderling, E-mail: georges.debilderling{at}pedi.ucl.ac.be


   Abstract

The authors investigated the risk of wheezing illnesses in relation to contemporaneous pollutant exposures (gas cooking, heating, and smoking) in childhood and adolescence in a cohort of 2,289 United Kingdom subjects. Data from two questionnaires assessing wheezing at ages 7-8 and 15-17 years and one questionnaire on current and past pollutant exposures at age 16-18 years were studied (1987-1996). The 1,868 subjects returning all three questionnaires were divided into three groups representing childhood (10.5%), adolescent (10.9%), and persistent (i.e., both; 16.3%) wheezing and compared with 1,165 controls (62.4%) without wheezing. The estimated risks of childhood wheezing were increased by exposure to any gas in childhood (odds ratio (OR) = 1.47, 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.05, 2.04) and exposure to a gas hob in childhood (OR = 1.56, 95% CI: 1.13, 2.16) and were increased further in those persistently exposed. Risk of persistent wheezing in adolescence was paradoxically reduced by exposure to a gas hob (OR = 0.67, 95% CI: 0.50, 0.91), possibly because of selection avoidance. Contemporaneous exposure to combined smoking by both parents was associated with wheezing in all groups (odds ratios ranged from 1.62 (95% CI: 1.06, 2.46) to 1.93 (95% CI: 1.10, 3.38)). Maternal smoking alone was associated with persistent wheezing and with both childhood (OR = 1.90, 95% CI: 1.06, 3.39) and persistent (OR = 2.18, 95% CI: 1.15, 4.14) wheezing if smoking occurred throughout childhood and adolescence. The authors conclude that exposures to gas cooking and smoking in childhood and adolescence increase the overall risk of wheezing.

Keywords: adolescent; air pollution, indoor; asthma; cookery; signs and symptoms, respiratory; smoking.

{dagger}Deceased.


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