Objective To analyze the relationships of respiratory health in infants with residential environment and behavioral factors.
Methods By stratified cluster sampling method 1 266 infants at 0-3 years of age visiting child care clinics were recruited in six community health services centers in Shanghai from March 1 to August 31, 2011. A revised questionnaire based on American Thoracic Society's Division of Lung Diseases questionnaire was applied to collect information on the infants' respiratory symptoms, prevalence of diseases, family indoor environment, and other related factors from the participants' caregivers.
Results The reported rates of persistent cough, persistent phlegm, wheeze, asthma, bronchitis, and pneumonia respectively were 2.2%, 1.3%, 19.1%, 8.2%, 17.6%, and 12.2%, respectively. After adjusting the confounding factors such as age, gender, residential area, parents' education level, family history of respiratory diseases and allergies, premature birth, low birth weight, breastfeeding, and personal history of early allergy, the residential environment and behavioral factors showed no relationship with persistent cough; the possibilities of reporting wheeze and pneumonia were greater along with worse living condition categories (OR=1.128, 95%CI:1.000-1.325; OR=1.240, 95%CI:1.078-1.426); the possibility of reporting asthma was greater with lower cleaning degree of air conditioner (OR=1.252, 95%CI:1.028-1.526); and the more pollutants fuel produced, the less reporting persistent phlegm, asthma, bronchitis and pneumonia were (OR=0.194, 95%CI:0.044-0.855; OR=0.515, 95%CI:0.279-0.950; OR=0.422, 95%CI:0.251-0.707;OR=0.531, 95%CI:0.304-0.928).
Conclusion Various residential environment and behavioral factors are associated with the respiratory health of 0-3-year-old infants
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