Early-life residential exposure to moisture damage is associated with persistent wheezing in a Finnish birth cohort

Background and aims: Moisture damage increases the risk for respiratory disorders in childhood. Our aim was to determine whether early age residential exposure to inspector-observed moisture damage or mold is associated with different wheezing phenotypes later in childhood.

Methods: Building inspections were performed by civil engineers, in a standardized manner, in the children's homes-mostly single family and row houses (N = 344)-in the first year of life. The children were followed up with repeated questionnaires until the age of 6 years and wheezing phenotypes-never/infrequent, transient, intermediate, late onset, and persistent-were defined using latent class analyses. The multinomial logistic regression model was used for statistical analysis.

Results: A total of 63% (n = 218) had infrequent or no wheeze, 23% (n = 80) had transient and 9.6% (n = 21) had a persistent wheeze. Due to the low prevalence, results for intermediate (3.8%, n = 13) and late-onset wheeze (3.5%, n = 12) were not further evaluated. Most consistent associations were observed with the persistent wheeze phenotype with an adjusted odds ratio (95% confidence intervals) 2.04 (0.67-6.18) for minor moisture damage with or without mold spots (present in 23.8% of homes) and 3.68 (1.04-13.05) for major damage or any moisture damage with visible mold in a child's main living areas (present in 13.4% of homes). Early-age moisture damage or mold in the kitchen was associated with transient wheezing.

Conclusion: At an early age, residential exposure to moisture damage or mold, can be dose-dependently associated especially with persistent wheezing phenotype later in childhood.