%0 Journal Article
%T Smoking and prevalence of allergic disorders in Japanese pregnant women: baseline data from the Kyushu Okinawa Maternal and Child Health Study
%A Keiko Tanaka
%A Yoshihiro Miyake
%A Masashi Arakawa
%J Environmental Health
%D 2012
%I BioMed Central
%R 10.1186/1476-069x-11-15
%X Study subjects were 1743 pregnant Japanese women. The definitions of wheeze and asthma were based on criteria from the European Community Respiratory Health Survey whereas those of eczema and rhinoconjunctivitis were based on criteria from the International Study of Asthma and Allergies in Childhood. Adjustment was made for age; region of residence; family history of asthma, atopic eczema, and allergic rhinitis; household income; and education.Compared with never smoking, current smoking and ¡Ý 4 pack-years of smoking were independently positively associated with the prevalence of wheeze. There were no associations between smoking status and the prevalence of asthma, eczema, or rhinoconjunctivitis. When subjects who had never smoked were classified into four categories based on the source of ETS exposure (never, only at home, only at work, and both), exposure occurring both at home and at work was independently associated with an increased prevalence of two outcomes: wheeze and rhinoconjunctivitis. No relationships were observed between exposure to ETS and the prevalence of asthma or eczema.Our results provide evidence that current smoking and ETS exposure may increase the likelihood of wheeze. The possibility of a positive association between ETS exposure and rhinoconjunctivitis was also suggested.Cigarette smoking is a known risk factor for various neurological, cardiovascular, and pulmonary diseases such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and lung cancer [1]. Research on the association between smoking and allergic diseases has mostly focused on asthma, and most evidence suggests that smoking is positively associated with asthma [2-6]. A population-based cohort study in Japan has shown that smoking is significantly associated with an increased risk of asthma in men, though this significant positive association was not observed in women [2]. Moreover, in the National Health and Nutrition Examination (USA), no association was observed between current smoking a
%K Asthma
%K Cross-sectional studies
%K Eczema
%K Environmental tobacco smoke
%K Smoking
%K Wheeze
%K Rhinoconjunctivitis
%U http://www.ehjournal.net/content/11/1/15