Association Between Usage of Electrical Equipment and Childhood Allergies and Asthma

• Main Authors: Belinda N.Makadia, 貝琳答
• Other Authors: Huey-Jen Su
• Format: Others
• Language: en_US
• Published: 2014
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/02102934079272762778

碩士 === 國立成功大學 === 環境醫學研究所 === 102 === There is an alarming global increase in asthma and allergic disease incidences especially in children, an indication that the cause may be due to changes in environmental exposure rather than genetics. With modernization and improved technology, the indoor environment has had an influx of electrical equipment and appliances. However, there is little known about the effect on children’s health caused by electrical equipment and appliances. Therefore, this study aims to investigate the association between electrical equipment usage and childhood allergy and asthma. We take advantage of data collected by structured questionnaire survey conducted in 2005 with the aim of identifying the relationship between indoor environmental quality in the home and preschool children’s health. A total of 14862 questionnaires were collected in preschool children aged 2-6 years in the greater Tainan metropolitan area of southern Taiwan. Chi-square tests were applied to assess the association between home characteristics and presence of asthma, allergic rhinitis, and eczema among participants. Besides, logistic regression models have been used to evaluate the risk of home electrical appliances with adjustments for gender, age, family history of allergic disease and smoking behavior. The baseline descriptive statistics showed that there were 6482, boys (51.5%) and 6101 girls (48.5%) with a mean age of 5.0 years old (standard deviation= 0.99). The prevalence for doctor diagnosed asthma, doctor diagnosed allergic rhinitis and eczema in the last 6 months was 9.3%, 19.3% and 17.6% respectively. Univariate analysis indicated that vacuum cleaner, humidifier, air cleaner, air humidifier, ionizer, television and Personal computer have positive associations with increased prevalence of at least two of the three diseases (p〈0.005 for all variables). In adjusted logistic regression models, all electronics increase the odds of having all diseases outcome. Air cleaner is significant for asthma (OR: 1.46; p〈 0.001), rhinitis OR: 1.347; p〈0.001), eczema (OR: 1.192; p= 0.005), air humidifier is significant for asthma (OR: 1.241; p=0.007), rhinitis (OR: 1.416; p〈0.001), eczema (OR: 1.194; p=0.003), Ionizer is significant for asthma (OR: 1.314; p=0.008), rhinitis (OR: 1.335; p〈0.001), eczema (OR: 1.310; p〈0.001).TV is significant for eczema (OR: 1.230; p=0.002). Air cleaner, air humidifier, and ionizer showed statistical significant results. Interestingly, televisions and Personal computers showed positive associations with children’s allergic diseases. TV that is older than 5 years of age increases the risk of rhinitis significantly (6-10yrs, OR: 1.286; p=0.024, 〈10yrs, OR: 1.255; p=0.047). A child spending mean time of 1.18hours on a weekday with PC had an increased risk of asthma (OR: 1.021; p=0.006). The location and age of TV may also influence the occurrence of asthma and eczema. Sensitivity analysis made no significant change to previous results. Interaction analysis shows that TV affects more boys than girls in rhinitis occurrence (OR: 1.347; p=0.011). In conclusion, electronic devices at home may be risk factors for allergic diseases, specifically air humidifier, air cleaner, ionizer and TV.