Health care education, delivery, and qualityHealth effects of indoor nitrogen dioxide and passive smoking on urban asthmatic children
Section snippets
Methods
The NCICAS (1992-1994) included 1528 children ages 4 through 9 years from 8 inner-city areas in the United States (Bronx, NY; East Harlem, NY; St Louis, Mo; Washington, DC; Baltimore, Md; Chicago, Ill; Cleveland, Ohio; and Detroit, Mich). The full design and methodology have been published and are summarized here.2, 24, 25 Children were recruited from emergency departments and clinics based on physician-diagnosed asthma and the presence of symptoms in the previous 12 months or cough, wheeze, or
Results
A total of 1528 caretaker and child pairs completed the baseline interview. The population was predominantly low-income African American and Latino. A large proportion of the participants had high-level social and psychological stress, allergen skin test reactivity, and exposure to NO2 and ETS in the home (Table I). Of the 525 Palmes tubes returned, 56 were missing duration of exposure, resulting in an analyzable sample of 469 (71%) of the 663 placed during the home visit. Valid cotinine
Discussion
High levels of NO2 and ETS were found in the indoor environments of inner-city children with asthma. Increased NO2 exposure was associated with increased asthma symptoms among nonatopic children. Higher NO2 exposure resulted in decreased peak flow during colder months. We found no association between the level of exposure to ETS and symptoms or unscheduled visits for asthma exacerbations. High levels of ETS were weakly associated with lower peak flow rates during colder months.
The median NO2
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Cited by (0)
Supported by grants UOI A1-30751, A1-30752, A1-30756, A1-30772, A1-30773-01, A1-30777, A1-30779, A1-30780, and N01-A1-15105 from the National Institutes of Allergy and Infectious Disease (National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Md).
Disclosure of potential conflict of interest: M. Kattan is on the speakers' bureau for AstraZeneca. P. Eggleston has consulting arrangements with the Chlorine Chemistry Council, Proctor and Gamble, SC Johnson, Nexcura, and Church and Dwight and is on the speakers' bureau for AstraZeneca, Merck, and GlaxoSmithKline. The rest of the authors have declared that they have no conflict of interest.