The passive smoking influence for allergic asthma and atopic dermatitis in preschool aged children

Abstract

It is well known that passive smoking by children is associated with an increased incidence of lower respiratory illness and diminished pulmonary function. However, the relationship between passive smoking and atopy and allergic diseases in childhood remain to clear. The sample studied includes 1,423 preschool aged (5-6 years old) children (540 allergic and 883 normal children). 182 children have Asthma and 145 children have atopic dermatitis, and followed by food allergy (3.5%) and allergic rhinitis (2.7%) in allergic children. The study was analyzed with information about these children to study the relationship between parental smoking and (1) the prevalence of childhood asthma and atopic dermatitis, and (2) total IgE, (3) the urinary cotinine/creatinine ratio (CCR) in the subjects. An odds ratio(OR) for asthma of 1.8 was shown by multivariate logistic regression among children. IgE level in passive smoking children is significantly higher than the non smoking children in allergic subjects (179.5±89.5 IU/mL, and 85.5±56.4 IU/mL). The CCR in passive smoking children was significantly higher than in non smoking children in allergic subjects (2.54 ng/mg, and 1.62 ng/mg). In conclusion, It was concluded that paternal smoking is associated with higher rates of asthma, allergic diseases. These findings have implications fore renewed efforts to discourage smoking in families, especially during the first 5 years of allergic children`s lives.