Passive smoking and childhood asthma

Abstract

Environmental tobacco smoke represents a significant risk for children health. The role of passive smoking habit in exposed children suffering from asthma is to be studied. Patients and methods: A retrospective matched casecontrol study is conducted in 835 children, who are distributed in groups according to their age and sex. Acontrol is randomly chosen per each case, thus matching 482 children. The following factors were analyzed: living with smokers, living with an usual smoking mother, usual presence of smokers at home during pregnancy, and maternal smoking habit during pregnancy. Data are arranged in 2x2 tables. ?2 Mantel-Haenszel test is conducted. Odds ratio, with a 95% confidence interval, and ethiological risk fraction are calculated for each one of the studied factors. Results: Our study does not show significant association between usual presence of smokers at home and higher childhood asthma frequency. However, having an usual smoking mother ?specially if she smokes during pregnancy? and her living with smokers during this period, do associate significantly with this pathology. Conclusions: Our study reveals the risk that implies the exposure to tobacco smoke for the development of childhood asthma, demonstrating a higher prevalence of asthma in children of smoking mothers ?particularly if they smoked during pregnancy? and perhaps contributing to trigger bronchial obstruction in those who were exposed to other people smoking habit during that period.