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Passive Smoking, Mold Exposure and the Upper Respiratory Health of Infants

Year: 2004
Type: article
Study design: Observational Study
Abstract: This study examined infants' risk for developing upper respiratory symptoms (URS) in relation to their exposure to environmental tobacco smoke (ETS) and mold.Eligible infants (n=633) were identified by birth records and had one parent that was atopic by positive skin prick test (SPT).Exposure information was collected at the time of parent SPT, and the average age of the infants was seven months.Parents were asked to complete monthly diaries related to their infants' URS.Our analysis included two models, one using parental report of mold/mildew and a sub-analysis (n=342) using in-home assessor report of none, low or high mold exposure.When controlling for race, gender and socioeconomic status, multivariate logistic regression showed an increased risk of sinus infection with parental report of mold/mildew (OR 1.91; 95%CI 1.14-3.23)and exposure to >20 cigarettes/day (2.38; 1.26-4.49); in the in-home assessor report, high mold was even more significant (6.7; 2.27-19.79).Ear infection was also associated with assessor report of mold, in both the low (1.77; 1.17-2.67)and high (3.07;1.32-7.12)categories.Rhinitis was significantly associated with parental report of mold/mildew (1.32; 1.31-1.47)and exposure to >20 cigarettes/day (1.74; 1.14-2.65).Although significant associations were not observed with allergic rhinitis, elevated odds ratios were observed with both parent and assessor report of mold.This analysis suggests that mold is a risk factor of sinus infection, ear infection and rhinitis, while ETS is a risk factor of sinus infections and rhinitis.This analysis suggests that mold exposure and not ETS is associated with ear infections in infants.The sub-analysis findings also may suggest that mold exposure is a stronger risk factor than ETS for sinus infection, while ETS may be more closely associated with rhinitis.
Language: English
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2249900852
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