Internal living environment and respiratory disease in children: findings from the Growing Up in New Zealand longitudinal child cohort study

Tin Tin, Sandar; Woodward, Alistair; Saraf, Rajneeta; Berry, Sarah; Atatoa Carr, Polly; Morton, Susan M. B.; Grant, Cameron C.

doi:10.1186/s12940-016-0207-z

Environmental Health

Table 3 Associations between internal living environment and hospital admission for an acute respiratory infection during the first five years of life

From: Internal living environment and respiratory disease in children: findings from the Growing Up in New Zealand longitudinal child cohort study

Variable	Incidence per 1000 person-years	Crude HR (95% CI)	Adjusted HR1^a (95% CI)	Adjusted HR2^b (95% CI)	Adjusted HR3 (95% CI)
Housing tenure
Owner occupancy	27.73 (25.19-30.46)	1.00	1.00	1.00	1.00
Tenancy	39.11 (36.00-42.43)	1.41 (1.22-1.63)	1.02 (0.88-1.18)	1.02 (0.88-1.18)	1.00 (0.87-1.16)^c
Crowding index
<1-2 (low and medium)	29.19 (27.06-31.44)	1.00	1.00	1.00	1.00
2+ (high)	47.68 (42.61-53.19)	1.63 (1.42-1.88)	1.11 (0.95-1.29)	1.07 (0.91-1.25)	1.07 (0.91-1.26)^c
Maternal cigarette smoking
Yes	55.23 (48.47-62.66)	1.87 (1.60-2.18)	1.14 (0.90-1.45)	1.06 (0.83-1.36)	1.10 (0.84-1.44)^c
No	29.61 (27.57-31.77)	1.00	1.00	1.00	1.00
Cigarette smoking by others in the household
Yes	44.58 (40.36-49.11)	1.57 (1.37-1.80)	0.99 (0.85-1.16)	0.97 (0.83-1.14)	0.94 (0.79-1.11)^c
No	28.40 (26.19-30.75)	1.00	1.00	1.00	1.00
Heating the house
Yes	31.41 (29.34-33.58)	0.65 (0.54-0.78)	0.99 (0.82-1.19)	0.87 (0.72-1.06)	0.87 (0.72-1.05)^c
No	48.58 (41.35-56.71)	1.00	1.00	1.00	1.00
Form/s of heating used in the house^d (N = 5298)
Electric heater
Yes	28.97 (26.87-31.19)	0.56 (0.47-0.68)	0.70 (0.58-0.83)	0.74 (0.61-0.89)	0.74 (0.61-0.89)^e
No	51.33 (43.52-60.15)	1.00	1.00	1.00	1.00
Flued gas heater
Yes	31.95 (26.55-38.12)	1.02 (0.83-1.25)	1.12 (0.92-1.37)	1.07 (0.88-1.31)	1.08 (0.89-1.32)^e
No	31.32 (29.09-33.67)	1.00	1.00	1.00	1.00
Unflued portable gas heater
Yes	31.91 (26.15-38.55)	1.02 (0.82-1.27)	0.89 (0.73-1.10)	0.92 (0.75-1.13)	0.90 (0.73-1.11)^e
No	31.34 (29.13-33.66)	1.00	1.00	1.00	1.00
Wood burner
Yes	26.70 (23.13-30.67)	0.80 (0.68-0.95)	0.79 (0.67-0.94)	0.78 (0.66-0.93)	0.79 (0.66-0.93)^e
No	33.19 (30.70-35.83)	1.00	1.00	1.00	1.00
Form/s of heating used in the room where child sleeps at night^d (N = 5298)
No heating
Yes	32.33 (26.89-38.56)	1.03 (0.84-1.27)	0.76 (0.63-0.93)	0.82 (0.67-0.99)	0.82 (0.67-1.00)^e
No	31.26 (29.03-33.60)	1.00	1.00	1.00	1.00
Electric heater
Yes	29.27 (27.04-31.64)	0.74 (0.62-0.87)	0.95 (0.81-1.12)	0.94 (0.80-1.11)	0.94 (0.80-1.10)^e
No	39.74 (34.68-45.33)	1.00	1.00	1.00	1.00
Flued gas heater
Yes	60.79 (43.81-82.17)	1.98 (1.42-2.77)	1.96 (1.43-2.68)	1.69 (1.21-2.36)	1.69 (1.21-2.36)^e
No	30.64 (28.58-32.82)	1.00	1.00	1.00	1.00
Unflued portable gas heater
Yes	70.04 (45.75-102.63)	2.27 (1.49-3.45)	1.78 (1.20-2.64)	1.68 (1.12-2.36)	1.68 (1.12-2.53)^e
No	30.87 (28.81-33.05)	1.00	1.00	1.00	1.00
Wood burner
Yes	32.08 (22.81-43.86)	1.02 (0.72-1.44)	0.93 (0.67-1.29)	1.01 (0.73-1.41)	1.02 (0.73-1.42)^e
No	31.38 (29.26-33.60)	1.00	1.00	1.00	1.00
Dampness of the house
Never or hardly ever	27.86 (25.15-30.77)	1.00	1.00	1.00	1.00
Not very often	30.79 (27.09-34.85)	1.07 (0.92-1.25)	0.93 (0.79-1.08)	0.95 (0.82-1.11)	0.96 (0.83-1.13)^c
Quite often	38.62 (32.71-45.29)	1.47 (1.23-1.75)	1.13 (0.95-1.34)	1.08 (0.91-1.29)	1.13 (0.94-1.36)^c
Always or almost always	51.30 (39.81-65.07)	1.81 (1.43-2.30)	1.13 (0.89-1.43)	1.07 (0.84-1.37)	1.15 (0.89-1.50)^c
Heavy condensation in the room where child sleeps at night
Never or hardly ever	29.90 (27.12-32.89)	1.00	1.00	1.00	1.00
Not very often	29.61 (25.84-33.76)	1.05 (0.90-1.23)	0.95 (0.81-1.11)	1.00 (0.86-1.17)	1.01 (0.86-1.17)^f
Quite often	35.63 (30.12-41.87)	1.29 (1.08-1.54)	1.08 (0.90-1.28)	1.02 (0.86-1.22)	1.05 (0.88-1.27)^f
Always or almost always	43.04 (33.15-54.95)	1.47 (1.15-1.86)	0.97 (0.76-1.23)	0.94 (0.74-1.20)	1.00 (0.77-1.31)^f
Mould or mildew in the walls or ceilings in the room where child sleeps at night in the past two weeks
Yes	33.88 (27.66-41.08)	1.24 (1.03-1.49)	0.92 (0.77-1.10)	0.88 (0.73-1.41)	0.81 (0.67-0.99)^c
No	31.10 (28.92-33.40)	1.00	1.00	1.00	1.00

^aAdjusted for all maternal factors (age, ethnicity, education, area of residence, neighbourhood deprivation, pre-pregnancy BMI, pre-pregnancy self-rated health, history of asthma, use of supplements, maternal smoking, parity and pregnancy planning)
^bAdjusted for all maternal factors as above and all child factors (gender, gestation, birth-weight, season of birth, proxy-rated health at 9 months, health or developmental problems, feeding practices, time spent outdoors and child immunisation)
^cAdjusted for all maternal and child factors as above and each other
^dRestricted to those who reported heating the house
^eAdjusted for all maternal and child factors as above and environmental factors (household tenure, crowding, household smoking, dampness of the house and mould or mildew in the child’s bedroom)
^fAdjusted for all maternal and child factors as above and environmental factors (household tenure, crowding, household smoking, heating the hose and mould or mildew in the child’s bedroom). A separate model was used here as heavy condensation was moderately correlated with dampness of the house

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