Individual and combined effects of indoor home exposures and ambient PM(2.5) during early life on childhood asthma in us birth cohort studies
Recommended Citation
Shiroshita A, Zanobetti A, Coull BA, Ryan PH, Datta S, Blossom J, Oken E, Gern JE, Luttmann-Gibson H, Mendonça EA, Ramratnam SK, Rifas-Shiman SL, Sordillo JE, Wang VA, Beamer PI, Jackson DJ, Johnson CC, Hershey GKK, Martinez FD, Miller RL, Rivera-Spoljaric K, Zoratti EM, Hartert TV, and Gold DR. Individual and combined effects of indoor home exposures and ambient PM(2.5) during early life on childhood asthma in us birth cohort studies. Environ Epidemiol 2026;10(1):e443.
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
2-1-2026
Publication Title
Environ Epidemiol
Keywords
Air pollution; Asthma; Childhood asthma; PM2.5; Pets; Water damage/home dampness
Abstract
BACKGROUND: Children encounter multiple indoor and outdoor environmental exposures in early life. We assessed the independent effects of indoor home exposures and ambient particulate matter with an aerodynamic diameter ≤2.5 µm (PM(2.5)) on early childhood asthma diagnosis.
METHODS: We included 6,413 children born 1987-2016 from nine United States prospective birth cohorts from the Environmental Influences on Child Health Outcomes consortium, with complete covariate and outcome data. Exposures were (1) average ambient PM(2.5) levels during the first 3 years of life, and (2) indoor home exposures, including water damage/home dampness during infancy/childhood, dogs/cats at home during infancy, dust mite allergen during infancy/childhood. Asthma was defined as caregiver-reported or doctor-diagnosed asthma anytime from birth to age 5. We applied Cox proportional hazards models, adjusting for individual-level and neighborhood-level confounders. Cohort-specific effects were implemented as fixed effects.
RESULTS: By age 5 years, 10.3%-50.3% of children had developed asthma across general-risk and high-risk cohorts. We found a significant detrimental association of PM(2.5) and water damage/home dampness, and a protective association of dogs in the home with risk of childhood asthma, regardless of PM(2.5) adjustment. The effect of having both water damage/home dampness and high PM(2.5) on asthma diagnosis was greater than that of no water damage/home dampness and having low PM(2.5) (hazard ratio: 1.95 [95% confidence interval = 1.19, 3.20]). There were no significant associations with household cats or dust mites.
CONCLUSION: Multiple early exposures, such as PM(2.5), home dampness, and absence of dogs in the home, should be considered together as risk factors for childhood asthma.
PubMed ID
41450756
Volume
10
Issue
1
First Page
443
Last Page
443
