PT - JOURNAL ARTICLE AU - Øistein Svanes AU - Trude Duelien Skorge AU - Randi J. Bertelsen AU - Bryndis Benediktsdóttir AU - Lennart Bråbäck AU - Bertil Forsberg AU - Thorarin Gislason AU - Mathias Holm AU - Christer Janson AU - Rain Jögi AU - Stein Håkon Låstad Lygre AU - Ferenc Macsali AU - Dan Norbäck AU - Ernst R. Omenaas AU - Francisco Gomez Real AU - Vivi Schlünssen AU - Torben I. Sigsgaard AU - Kjell Toren AU - Gunilla Wieslander AU - Tor Aasen AU - Cecilie Svanes AU - Ane Johannessen AU - Julia Dratva TI - Childhood disadvantages modify the impact of working as a cleaner on respiratory health DP - 2014 Sep 01 TA - European Respiratory Journal PG - 406 VI - 44 IP - Suppl 58 4099 - http://erj.ersjournals.com/content/44/Suppl_58/406.short 4100 - http://erj.ersjournals.com/content/44/Suppl_58/406.full SO - Eur Respir J2014 Sep 01; 44 AB - Introduction: The Barker hypothesis on early life programming implies that childhood disadvantages may have long-term health consequences; increasing the subject's susceptibility to harmful adult exposures might be one plausible pathway.Aim and objectives: To investigate if susceptibility to harmful adult exposures such as cleaning agents could also be influenced by early life factors.Methods: Respiratory Health In Northern Europe (RHINE) is a postal questionnaire follow-up study of the ECRHS I stage I. In RHINE III, 13283 subjects responded to the question “have you ever worked as a cleaner” (“Yes” n=2138) and reported the duration of working as a cleaner.Early life disadvantage was defined by factors predicting enhanced susceptibility to smoking in a previous analysis (born during winter months, maternal age >35 years, severe respiratory infection <5 years, maternal smoking). Associations of respiratory health with cleaning and interaction with early life disadvantages were analysed with multiple logistic regression adjusting for potential confounders.Results: Cleaning was more strongly associated with wheeze and asthma symptoms among those with early life disadvantage (ORwheeze=1.8 [95%CI = 1.5-2.3]; ORasthma symptoms=2.2 [1.8-2.8]) than among those without (ORwheeze=1.3[95%CI = 0.9-1.8]; ORasthma symptoms=1.6 [1.1-2.3]). The observed difference was significant for wheeze (pinteraction=0.044), and did not reach significant for asthma symptoms (pinteraction=0.078).Conclusion: Early life disadvantage appears to modify the impact of working as a cleaner on respiratory health. We hypothesize that early life disadvantage might act by increasing the lungs' vulnerability to cleaning agents.