APHA
Back to Annual Meeting Page
 
American Public Health Association
133rd Annual Meeting & Exposition
December 10-14, 2005
Philadelphia, PA
APHA 2005
 
3072.2: Monday, December 12, 2005 - Board 3

Abstract #121378

Risk factors for infant asthma in high-risk families

Bill Chiu, MD1, Katherine Kaufer Christoffel, MD, MPH2, Karen Sheehan, MD, MPH3, and Marie Crandall, MD1. (1) Department of Surgery, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, 251 E. Huron Street, 3-150, Chicago, IL 60611, 312-695-4835, macranda@nmh.org, (2) Children's Memorial Hospital, Center for Obesity Management and Prevention, 2300 Children's Plaza, Box 157, Chicago, IL 60614-3394, (3) Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern University, Children's Memorial Hospital, 2300 Children's Plaza, Chicago, IL 60614

Purpose

            Socioeconomically disadvantaged communities in the United States have disproportionately high number of children diagnosed with asthma. We investigated the various risk factors that might contribute to the disease in a cohort of children born to high-risk families.

  Methods

            The Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study is a longitudinal cohort of approximately 5000 children from mostly unwed parents across the United States. Data from interviews with mothers conducted shortly after birth and follow-up surveys at one year were used for this analysis. Infant asthma was identified when the child was treated by health care professionals for asthma or when the child had more than one episode of asthma attack. Multivariate regression analysis was used to identify independent risk factors for asthma in this population.

  Results

            13.5% of the respondents (n=506 of 3747) had an infant with asthma. Significant risk factors associated with infant asthma included maternal cigarette smoking, low child weight, child's male gender, and African-American race. Breastfeeding had a protective effect. (Table 1)    Table 1

Risk Factor

Odds Ratio

95% CI

p-value

Breastfeeding

0.79

0.64-0.97

0.024

Maternal Cigarette Smoking

1.40

1.12-1.74

0.003

Child's Weight

1.22

1.02-1.46

0.032

Male Gender

0.56

0.46-0.69

0.000

African-American Race

2.52

1.94-3.28

0.000

 

Conclusion

            Environmental factors interact with a child's characteristics in contributing to infantile asthma. Policies that promote breastfeeding, discourage maternal cigarette smoking, and identify high-risk children could reduce asthma incidence.

Learning Objectives:

Keywords: Asthma, Child Health

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

I wish to disclose that I have NO financial interests or other relationship with the manufactures of commercial products, suppliers of commercial services or commercial supporters.

Late Breaker Poster II

The 133rd Annual Meeting & Exposition (December 10-14, 2005) of APHA