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Secondhand smoke and traffic exhaust confer opposing risks for asthma in normal and overweight children
Author(s) -
LeMasters Grace,
Levin Linda,
Bernstein David I.,
Lockey Stephen D.,
Lockey James E.,
Burkle Jeff,
Khurana Hershey Gurjit K.,
Brunst Kelly,
Ryan Patrick H.
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
obesity
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.438
H-Index - 199
eISSN - 1930-739X
pISSN - 1930-7381
DOI - 10.1002/oby.20941
Subject(s) - overweight , medicine , asthma , odds ratio , confidence interval , body mass index , percentile , obesity , environmental health , pediatrics , demography , statistics , mathematics , sociology
Objective Exposure to ultrafine particles (UFP) in secondhand smoke (SHS) and traffic‐related air pollution (TRAP) may elicit chronic inflammation. It was hypothesized that the association between these exposures would be potentiated in overweight versus normal‐weight children. Methods Average lifetime exposure to TRAP and SHS and objective, physician‐diagnosed asthma were determined for 575 children at age 7. Overweight was defined as having a body mass index (BMI) > 85th percentile for age and gender. The association between TRAP and SHS exposure and asthma was examined by logistic regression stratified by BMI. Results A total of 131 children were overweight; the prevalence of asthma was 24.4% and 14.2% among overweight and normal‐weight children, respectively. Exposure to SHS was significantly associated with asthma among overweight (adjusted odds ratio [adjOR] = 3.0; 95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.2, 7.4) but not normal‐weight children (adjOR = 1.1; 95% CI = 0.4, 2.7). In contrast, TRAP was significantly associated with asthma among normal‐weight (adjOR = 1.8; 95% CI = 1.0, 3.4) but not overweight children (adjOR = 0.7; 95% CI = 0.4, 2.7). Conclusions The association between SHS and TRAP exposure and asthma is modified by children's weight. Children's time‐activity patterns, including time spent indoors or outdoors, may vary by weight and play an important role in these UFP exposures.