RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Parents having worked as cleaners and offspring's atopic eczema
JF European Respiratory Journal
JO Eur Respir J
FD European Respiratory Society
SP 407
VO 44
IS Suppl 58
A1 Randi J. Bertelsen
A1 Hilde Kristin Vindenes
A1 Trude Duelien Skorge
A1 Tor Aasen
A1 Bryndís Benediktsdóttir
A1 Shyamali Dharmage
A1 Bertil Forsberg
A1 Thorarinn Gislason
A1 Mathias Holm
A1 Christer Janson
A1 Rain Jogi
A1 Dan Norbäck
A1 Lars Modig
A1 Ernst Omenaas
A1 Francisco Gomez Real
A1 Vivi Schlünssen
A1 Torben Sigsgaard
A1 Kjell Toren
A1 Gunilla Wieslander
A1 Ane Johannessen
A1 Øistein Svanes
A1 Cecilie Svanes
YR 2014
UL http://erj.ersjournals.com/content/44/Suppl_58/407.abstract
AB Background: Parents' exposure to cleaning chemicals may impact children's health, either through a direct effect on the child from exposure to cleaning agents or through immunologically transferred effects between generations. We aimed to assess whether ever having worked as a cleaner is a risk factor for eczema in the offspring.Method: Occupational history as a cleaner and atopic eczema in the child (from parental questionnaires) was retrieved from the Respiratory Health in Northern Europe (RHINE III) study in 2012. We used a random-effects regression model to estimate the odds of atopic eczema if the parents had ever worked as a cleaner. The model included 9,445 35-67 year olds and their 21,810 offspring (0-51 years old). Analyses were adjusted for parental history of asthma, dampness/mold at home, parental educational level, parental smoking, parents' gender, age of children and parents (at data collection), study center, and family clustering.Results: The odds for offspring's eczema (16%) was increased if either the mother or father had ever worked as a cleaner (16%), OR = 1.24 (95% CI: 1.09, 1.42). The odds for offspring's eczema was OR=1.20 (95% CI: 1.04, 1.49) if it was the mother who had worked as a cleaner (22%) and OR=1.46 (95% CI: 1.10, 1.94) if it was the father who had worked as a cleaner (9%).Conclusion: Children of parents who reported to ever having worked as cleaners had more often atopic eczema than children of parents who had never worked as cleaners. Although we cannot exclude the possibility of unmeasured confounding, a potential trans-generational association between parental exposure to cleaning agents and eczema in the offspring should be further examined.