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Exposure to Ascaris lumbricoides infection and risk of childhood asthma in north of Iran

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Abstract

Background

Asthma and Ascaris lumbricoides infection are common health issues affecting 250 and 700 million people worldwide, respectively. The relationship between ascariasis and asthma is a matter of substantial interest and research.

Methods

We performed a case–control study to evaluate whether the exposure to Ascaris infection is associated with asthma in children. We also assessed potential risk factors for Ascaris infection and asthma in study area. We enrolled 145 asthmatic children and 115 healthy controls. The Global Initiative for Asthma guideline was used to evaluate asthma symptoms and severity in study participants. Ascaris infection was assessed by the presence of anti-Ascaris IgG ≥ 11 IU/mL measured by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay.

Results

We have found a significant relationship between exposure to Ascaris and asthma (odds ratio, 2.92; 95% CI 1.04–8.18; P value = 0.034), and this relationship remained significant after adjustment for covariates (adjusted OR, 3.36; 95% CI 1.04–13%; P value = 0.047). Ascaris infection was more frequent in children with mild sustainable asthma (13.2%; 15/113) than in children with moderate sustainable asthma (6.2%, 2/32), although there was a non-significant difference between these groups (OR, 2.3; 95% CI 0.5–10.1; P value = 0.35). Based on results of a multi-regression analysis, contact with soil (OR, 6.7; 95% CI 1.9–23.5), and drinking unsafe water (OR, 4.2; 95% CI 1.2–14.2) were significant risk factors for Ascaris infection in the study area.

Conclusion

Results of this study suggest that A. lumbricoides infection might affect susceptibility to asthma in children. These results could be useful in prevention, early diagnosis and management of childhood asthma.

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Acknowledgements

The authors are very thankful to the staff of the Amirkolah Hospital of Babol University of Medical Sciences, especially Dr. Mohesn Mohammadi, for their kind assistance in sample collection. Most importantly, the authors would like to thank all the participants in this study.

Funding

This work was supported by Institute Health Research at the Babol University of Medical Sciences (Grant number IR.MUBABOL.HRI.REC.1396.207).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Non-Communicable Pediatric Diseases Research Center, Health Research Institute, Babol University of Medical Sciences, Babol, Iran

    Iraj Mohammadzadeh, Mohammad Pournasrollah & Mohammadreza Esmaeili Dooki

  2. Infectious Diseases and Tropical Medicine Research Center, Health Research Institute, Babol University of Medical Sciences, Babol, Iran

    Ali Rostami, Sorena Darvish & Mostafa Javanian

  3. Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, School of Public Health, Tehran University of Medical Science, Tehran, Iran

    Saeed Mehravar

  4. National Academy of Sciences, Washington, DC, USA

    H. Ray Gamble

Authors
  1. Iraj Mohammadzadeh
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  2. Ali Rostami
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  3. Sorena Darvish
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  5. Mohammad Pournasrollah
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Correspondence to Ali Rostami.

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None of the authors have any conflict of interest.

Ethical approval

All procedures performed in this study were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Declaration of Helsinki and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

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Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants parents included in the study.

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Mohammadzadeh, I., Rostami, A., Darvish, S. et al. Exposure to Ascaris lumbricoides infection and risk of childhood asthma in north of Iran. Infection 47, 991–999 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s15010-019-01343-0

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