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Parental education and children's respiratory and allergic symptoms in the Pollution and the Young (PATY) study

¹ GSF - National Research Center for Environment and Health, Institute of Epidemiology, Neuherberg, and ² Ludwig Maximilians University of Munich, Institute of Medical Data Management, Biometrics and Epidemiology, Munich, Germany. ³ Utrecht University, Institute for Risk Assessment Sciences, Environmental and Occupational Health Group, Utrecht, The Netherlands. ⁴ London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, PEHRU Public and Environmental Health Research Unit, London, UK. ⁵ Institute of Public Health, Unit of Monitoring, Ostrava, Czech Republic. ⁶ National Institute of Hygiene, Medical Ecology and Nutrition (NCHMEN), Sofia, Bulgaria. ⁷ University of Basel, Institute of Social and Preventive Medicine, Basel, Switzerland. ⁸ Regional Authority of Public Health, Banska Bystrica, Slovak Republic. ⁹ San Giovanni Battista Hospital and Center for Cancer Prevention (CPO), Unit of Cancer Epidemiology, Torino, Italy. ¹⁰ Ural Region Environmental Epidemiology Center, Ekaterinburg, Russian Federation. ¹¹ Harvard School of Public Health, Dept of Environmental Health, Boston, MA, USA. ¹² Medical University of Vienna, Institute of Environmental Health, Vienna, Austria. ¹³ National Institute of Environmental Health, "Fodor Jozsef" National Center for Public Health, Budapest, Hungary. ¹⁴ Institute of Occupational Medicine and Environmental Health, Epidemiology Dept, Sosnowiec, Poland.

CORRESPONDENCE: U. Gehring, Institute for Risk Assessment Sciences, University of Utrecht, PO Box 80176, 3508 TD Utrecht, The Netherlands. Fax: 31 302539499. E-mail: U.Gehring{at}iras.uu.nl

Keywords: Allergy, asthma, education, respiratory symptoms, socio-economic status

Received: February 15, 2005
Accepted August 25, 2005

Inequalities in health between socio-economic groups are a major public health concern. The current authors studied associations between parental socio-economic status (SES) and children's respiratory and allergic symptoms in 13 diverse countries, including the Russian Federation, North America (Canada and the USA), and countries across Eastern and Western Europe.

Data of 57,000 children aged 6–12 yrs, originating from eight cross-sectional studies, were analysed. SES was defined by parental education. Respiratory and allergic symptoms were defined by parental questionnaire reports.

Multiple logistic regressions showed that low parental education was associated with a decreased risk of inhalant allergy and itchy rash in school children. Furthermore, low parental education was associated with an increased prevalence of wheeze and nocturnal dry cough. No clear association was found between parental education and prevalence of doctor-diagnosed asthma and bronchitis. Part of the difference between socio-economic groups with regard to their children's symptoms was explained by established risk factors, such as parental allergy, smoking during pregnancy, pet ownership, crowding, mould/moisture in the home, use of gas for cooking, and air pollution (particulate matter with a diameter of <10 µm). However, differences remained after adjusting for these variables.

Children's health was associated with parental education. The association could not fully be explained by established risk factors.

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