Original Articles: Asthma, Lower Airway DiseasesMold exposure during infancy as a predictor of potential asthma development
Section snippets
INTRODUCTION
Several studies1, 2 have shown that home dampness and visible mold are associated with the severity of respiratory symptoms, such as wheezing, coughing, and asthma, in children. The association between mold exposure and the development of asthma is less studied. Parental report of a moldy odor at home in the past year has been associated with the development of physician-diagnosed asthma in children aged 1 to 7 years.3 Similarly, parental reports of visible mold or moisture at home during the
Recruitment
Infants were identified from birth certificate records (October 1, 2001, through July 31, 2003) and were recruited into the Cincinnati Childhood Allergy and Air Pollution Study as described previously.13, 15, 17 This study was approved by the institutional review boards of the University of Cincinnati and Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center. Informed consent was obtained from a parent of each participating child.
Exposure Evaluation
When infants reached an average age of 8 months, a detailed questionnaire
Exposure and Participant Characteristics
Of the 483 children in this study, 16% were black, 43% were male, and 32% had no siblings in the home (Table 1). Almost half of the children reporting high visible mold at home (7 of 16) had a positive API, and one-third (4 of 11) had atopic wheezing. Overall, one-fifth of those with any visible mold had a positive API and atopic wheezing (Table 1). One-third of children whose mothers smoked (18 of 58) and one-quarter of those who had lower respiratory tract symptoms (45 of 178) had a positive
DISCUSSION
We previously presented data on environmental exposures, including visible mold and (1–3)-β-D-glucan, and related sensitization and wheezing in this cohort at the age of 1 year. Herein we report the effect of these exposures in the same cohort at the age of 3 years. Furthermore, the main focus, and the uniqueness, of this study is that it is, to our knowledge, the first to explore the effect of visible mold and (1–3)-β-D-glucan exposure on the clinical API. We found that exposure to high
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2020, Annals of Allergy, Asthma and ImmunologyCitation Excerpt :Firstly, Villahermosa has a tropical climate: 24% of all our households reported the presence of mold. Mold exposure during infancy has been demonstrated to be a predictor of potential asthma development,15 partly because of allergic sensitization, but also because of volatile substances and other toxins that molds secrete.16,17 Similarly, a small study in Costa Rica concluded that lifetime childhood asthma prevalence was related to relative moldiness index values in floor dust, but not to dust mite allergen concentrations in bed dust (positive in 90% of all homes, but not different in homes with high vs low lifetime childhood asthma prevalence).18
A Pediatric Asthma Risk Score to better predict asthma development in young children
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Disclosures: Authors have nothing to disclose.
Funding Sources: This study was supported by National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences grant ES11170 and by National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health Training Program of the University of Cincinnati Education and Research Center grant T42/CCT510420.