Paternal Heredity and Housing Characteristics Affect Childhood Asthma and Allergy Morbidity

ABSTRACT

A birth cohort was initiated when each pregnant woman was asked for her own and her husband's history of asthma and allergic diseases at the time of recruitment. They were further inquired to verify their housing conditions, and current health status of children 3 to 5 years old at the time of interview. Paternal history was the most significant risk factor associated with reporting childhood morbidities at age of 3 to 5 years. Housing characteristics became meaningful variables only if the fathers were asthmatic or atopic. A 9-fold increase of risk was found if children with paternal history and also exposed to incense burning and water damage at home. This is the first epidemiological evidence of East Asia suggesting paternal heredity, with concurrent indoor hazardous exposures, as a predominant risk on developing childhood asthma and allergy.

KEYWORDS:

• asthma
• childhood allergy
• incense burning
• paternal history
• water damage

Acknowledgments

The authors are in great debt to all participants for their trust and kind cooperation, as well as people who contributed to this study. We also appreciate Dr. Chao-Yu Guo for the consultation of data analysis. This study was supported in part by a grant from Taiwan National Science Council (NSC89-2316-B006-018) and Taiwan Environmental Protection Agency (EPA-95-FAll-03-0071).