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http://dx.doi.org/10.5668/JEHS.2012.38.3.223

The Association between Childhood Asthma and Residential Environment through Case-Control Study  

Hwang, Gyu-Seok (Institute of Health and Environment, Seoul National University)
Yoon, Chung-Sik (Occupational and Environmental Health Laboratory, School of Public Health, Seoul National University)
Choi, Jae-Wook (Department of Preventive Medicine, College of Medicine, Korea University)
Publication Information
Journal of Environmental Health Sciences / v.38, no.3, 2012 , pp. 223-232 More about this Journal
Abstract
Objective: We performed this study to determine the association between childhood asthma and residential environment risk factors including VOCs and formaldehyde exposure. Methods: We selected an asthma group (30) and a control gorup (30) through physicain diagnosis and assessed the VOCs and formaldehyde levels of exposure of elementary school children in Seoul. Results: In the results, there were no significant differences in socioeconomic factors between case and control groups. However, there were significant differences in family asthma history, amount of sunlight, level of humidity and number of household residents (p < 0.05). The level of VOC (toluene, ethylbenzene, stylene, m,p-xylene) exposure level of the case group was significantly higher than that of the control group (p < 0.05) and the result of logistic regression showed that asthma family history, amount of humidity and number of household residents were significant predictors of childhood asthma (p < 0.05). Conclusion: Some residential environments such as lower amounts of sunlight, greater amounts of humidity and smaller numbers of household residents and VOC exposure were determinded as risk factors for childhood asthma.
Keywords
childhood asthma; residential risk factor; VOCs; formaldehyde;
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