Gisler, Amanda; Eeftens, Marloes; de Hoogh, Kees; Vienneau, Danielle; Salem, Yasmin; Yammine, Sophie; Jakob, Julian; Gorlanova, Olga; Decrue, Fabienne; Gehrig, Regula; Frey, Urs; Latzin, Philipp; Fuchs, Oliver; Usemann, Jakob (2022). Pollen exposure is associated with risk of respiratory symptoms during the first year of life. Allergy, 77(12), pp. 3606-3616. Wiley-Blackwell 10.1111/all.15284
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Gisler_Allergy_2022.pdf - Published Version Available under License Creative Commons: Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works (CC-BY-NC-ND). Download (1MB) | Preview |
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Allergy_-_2022_-_Gisler_-_Pollen_exposure_is_associated_with_risk_of_respiratory_symptoms_during_the_first_year_of_life.pdf - Accepted Version Available under License Creative Commons: Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works (CC-BY-NC-ND). Download (11MB) | Preview |
BACKGROUND
Pollen exposure is associated with respiratory symptoms in children and adults. However, the association of pollen exposure with respiratory symptoms during infancy, a particularly vulnerable period, remains unclear. We examined whether pollen exposure is associated with respiratory symptoms in infants and if maternal atopy, infant's sex or air pollution modify this association.
METHODS
We investigated 14,874 observations from 401 healthy infants of a prospective birth cohort. The association between pollen exposure and respiratory symptoms, assessed in weekly telephone interviews, was evaluated using generalized additive mixed models (GAMM). Effect modification by maternal atopy, infant's sex and air pollution (NO2 , PM2.5 ) was assessed with interaction terms.
RESULTS
Per infant 37±2 (mean±SD) respiratory symptom scores were assessed during the analysis period (January through September). Pollen exposure was associated with increased respiratory symptoms during the daytime (RR [95% CI] per 10% pollen/m3 : combined 1.006 [1.002, 1.009]; tree 1.005 [1.002, 1.008]; grass 1.009 [1.000, 1.23]) and nighttime (combined 1.003 [0.999, 1.007]; tree 1.003 [0.999, 1.007]; grass 1.014 [1.004, 1.024]). While there was no effect modification by maternal atopy and infant's sex, a complex crossover interaction between combined pollen and PM2.5 was found (p-Value 0.002).
CONCLUSION
Even as early as during the first year of life, pollen exposure was associated with an increased risk of respiratory symptoms, independent of maternal atopy and infant's sex. Because infancy is a particularly vulnerable period for lung development, the identified adverse effect of pollen exposure may be relevant for the evolvement of chronic childhood asthma.