Asthmasymptome und die häusliche Umgebung

Summary

Background

The indoor home environment has been shown to be associated with the presence of respiratory symptoms and atopic disease.

Methods

Two cross-sectional surveys (1995–2000) were conducted, using data from the ISAAC phase I and III surveys, collected in Münster, Germany. The prevalence ratios (PR) for several indoor exposures and asthma-related outcomes in six- to seven-year-old children (n = 6,996) were analyzed, adjusting for potential confounders.

Results

Surprisingly, presence of a carpet was negatively associated with most respiratory conditions. When the analysis was restricted to participants without avoidance of a carpet due to a history of atopic disease, the protective association disappeared. Present pet ownership mostly did not show positive associations with respiratory symptoms. However, ownership at different times in life revealed positive associations, particularly for birds owned in the first year of life (PR 1.51, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.11–2.06 for sleep disturbance due to wheeze; PR 1.28, 95% CI 1.01–1.63 for wheeze during the last twelve months).

Conclusion

The change of association in participants who did not report allergy-related avoidance of carpets suggests that the observed effect is a result of asthmatics’ changed behavior. The effect of allergy-related change in behavior and the results observed for ownership of pets at different ages underline the need for establishing a precise temporal relationship between disease and exposure.