Prenatal and postnatal decoration in residence are associated with childhood allergies and respiratory diseases: A 10-year repeated retrospective observational study

Abstract

The previous studies reported inconsistent associations of early residential decoration with childhood allergies and respiratory diseases. In this study, we conducted a 10-year retrospective observational survey among preschoolers from three urban districts in Chongqing of China in 2010 and in 2019, to investigate the associations of the prenatal and postnatal residential decorations with the childhood asthma, allergic rhinitis, eczema, wheeze, rhinitis, and pneumonia. We collected data from 4976 to 3971 of 3-6-year-olds preschoolers in the 2010 and 2019 surveys, respectively. The results showed that proportions of prenatal and postnatal residential decorations in different durations in 2010 were significantly higher than in 2019 (4.1%–19.6% vs. 2.1–5.3%). Except for allergic rhinitis (6.1% vs. 9.5%), prevalences of the studied diseases in 2010 also were significantly higher than in 2019 (for example: asthma: 8.2% vs. 6.1%; wheeze: 17.1% vs. 7.7%; rhinitis: 40.6% vs. 24.0%). In the two-level (district-child) logistic regression analyses, surveys in both 2010 and 2019 revealed that residential renovation and buying new furniture in prenatal and postnatal periods consistently increased odds of most studied diseases (ranges of adjusted odds ratio (AOR): 1.31–1.86). The prenatal decoration exposures had stronger associations with childhood allergies and respiratory diseases than the postnatal decoration exposures. The early residential decoration activities had stronger associations with allergies and respiratory diseases among girls and preschoolers without history of family allergy. Our findings indicate that prenatal and postnatal household decoration behaviors are risk factors for childhood airway diseases and allergies. Girls and children without family history of allergy are vulnerability groups.