PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - David Olsson
AU  - Lennart Bråbäck
AU  - Bertil Forsberg
TI  - Air pollution exposure during pregnancy and infancy and childhood asthma
DP  - 2014 Sep 01
TA  - European Respiratory Journal
PG  - P4237
VI  - 44
IP  - Suppl 58
4099  - http://erj.ersjournals.com/content/44/Suppl_58/P4237.short
4100  - http://erj.ersjournals.com/content/44/Suppl_58/P4237.full
SO  - Eur Respir J2014 Sep 01; 44
AB  - Recent reviews support an association between exposure to air pollution from traffic and incidence of asthma in children. However, inconsistent results and the risk of awareness bias in parental-reported data motivate further analyses in large studies using objective air pollution data and registry-based outcome data.Our aim was to study the associations between early-life exposure to traffic-related air pollution and childhood asthma in Greater Stockholm. We constructed a register-based cohort by linking data from the Swedish Medical Birth Register, the Swedish Prescribed Drug Register and the Swedish Patient Register. We included all children born between June 2000 and November 2005, n = 78,770. Asthma was defined as receiving prescribed asthma medication during the 6th year of life. NOx levels at residence were estimated using a dispersion model and used as an indicator of motor vehicle exhaust.9.7 % of the children were classified as having asthma. Asthma was more common among children who were born preterm, were small for gestational age, or had a family history of asthma. There was no association between NOx levels during pregnancy or infancy and asthma; the tendency was even negative (ORs = 0.97 and 0.98). However, we found a tendency that moving to a residence with higher concentrations than the first was associated with an increased risk for asthma (OR = 1.04).We observed no evidence suggesting that the vehicle exhaust level at home during gestation or infancy, using NOx as a proxy, is associated with the risk of childhood asthma.