Association between intensity of antenatal and post-natal maternal exposure to latex and biocides/fungicides and childhood wheeze and asthma
| Exposure intensity | Wheeze at 0–81 months | Doctor-diagnosed asthma at 91 months | |||||
| Data points# n | OR (95 CI)¶ | p-value | Data points+ n | OR (95 CI)¶ | p-value | ||
| Latex | |||||||
| Antenatal | None | 35171 | 1 | 0.001§ | 5462 | 1 | 0.050§ |
| Low | 2067 | 1.01 (0.84–1.23) | 298 | 1.03 (0.77–1.37) | |||
| Medium | 366 | 1.20 (0.81–1.78) | 68 | 1.03 (0.56–1.88) | |||
| High | 4909 | 1.24 (1.09–1.42) | 767 | 1.22 (1.01–1.48) | |||
| Post-natal | None | 17748 | 1 | 0.008§ | 2639 | 1 | <0.001§ |
| Low | 813 | 0.86 (0.62–1.20) | 115 | 1.29 (0.83–2.00) | |||
| Medium | 117 | 1.59 (0.89–2.86) | 18 | 1.39 (0.48–4.03) | |||
| High | 3180 | 1.26 (1.07–1.50) | 475 | 1.46 (1.15–1.85) | |||
| Biocide/fungicide | |||||||
| Antenatal | None | 33141 | 1 | 0.004§ | 5191 | 1 | 0.206§ |
| Low | 4924 | 1.06. (0.93–1.20) | 727 | 0.96 (0.79–1.17) | |||
| Medium/high | 4448 | 1.23 (1.07–1.40) | 672 | 1.20 (0.98–1.47) | |||
| Post-natal | None | 16206 | 1 | 0.036§ | 2421 | 1 | 0.008§ |
| Low | 2788 | 1.04 (0.87–1.25) | 403 | 1.08 (0.82–1.40) | |||
| Medium/high | 2864 | 1.22 (1.02–2.05) | 418 | 1.47 (1.14–1.88) | |||
| Latex | High | ||||||
| None | 15477 | 1 | 1927 | 1 | |||
| Antenatal only | 433 | 1.11 (0.73–1.69) | 0.250 | 54 | 1.04 (0.52–2.07) | 0.910 | |
| Post-natal only | 338 | 2.21 (1.44–3.39) | <0.001 | 40 | 2.40 (1.24–4.67) | 0.010 | |
| Antenatal+post-natal | 2555 | 1.09 (0.90–1.33) | 0.360 | 326 | 1.36 (1.01–1.81) | 0.040 | |
| Biocide/fungicide | Medium | ||||||
| None | 14044 | 1 | 1771 | 1 | |||
| Antenatal only | 288 | 1.23 (0.79–1.93) | 0.360 | 35 | 1.19 (0.53–2.69) | 0.670 | |
| Post-natal only | 295 | 1.56 (0.93–2.61) | 0.090 | 38 | 1.65 (0.80–3.42) | 0.180 | |
| Antenatal+post-natal | 2233 | 1.11 (0.90–1.35) | 0.340 | 283 | 1.41 (1.04–1.91) | 0.026 | |
| Latex and/or biocide/fungicide | Any post-natal | ||||||
| None | 15507 | 1 | 1957 | 1 | |||
| Latex only | 699 | 1.02 (0.73–1.43) | 0.910 | 78 | 1.39 (0.81–2.36) | 0.230 | |
| Biocide/fungicide only | 2241 | 1.01 (0.82–1.24) | 0.920 | 248 | 1.09 (0.77–1.53) | 0.640 | |
| Latex+biocide/fungicide | 3411 | 1.22 (1.03–1.43) | 0.022 | 432 | 1.47 (1.14–1.47) | 0.003 | |
#: of childhood wheezing status summated over the seven follow-up ages included in the generalised estimating equation model for each level of maternal occupational exposure; ¶: adjusted for sex, birthweight, gestational age at delivery and maternal asthma, age at delivery, parity, highest educational qualification, smoking during pregnancy and home ownership status; +: of childhood asthma status at 91 months included in the logistic regression model for each level of maternal occupational exposure; §: p-value for trend derived from tests of linear trend across increasing exposure categories.