Li Y-F, Langholz B, Salam MT, and Gilliland FD. 2005. Maternal and grandmaternal smoking patterns are associated with early childhood asthma. Chest, 127 (4): 1232-1241.
This was a smaller case-control study nested within the ongoing University of Southern CA Children's Health Study (CHS, I = 1993-2003, II = 2004-). There were 338 asthmatic children (cases, 82.5% participated), who were diagnosed by a doctor before age 5, and 570 matched control subjects (72.3% participated). Telephone interviews were conducted with each child's mother.
The major statistically significant association was a grandmother's smoking during the mother's fetal period was associated with increased risk of asthma for the grandchild. Estimated exposure to environmental tobacco smoke after birth was not independently associated with child asthma.
Other associations were borderline non-significant, which may be due to relatively small sample sizes or the defined exposure estimates, among other reasons. For example, they could not assess smoking cessation during pregnancy and child asthma because only about 15% of mothers reported this behavior.
For more information, please read the abstract and/or access the full text, if your institution or local library has access, at:
http://www.chestjournal.org/cgi/content/abstract/127/4/1232 |
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