Parental environmental tobacco smoking and the prevalence of respiratory diseases in primary school children

Abstract

Introduction: The inhaling tobacco smoke to which a child is exposed, in a home environmental area, could affect respiratory system.

Material and methods: The aim of the study consists in detecting the prevalence of respiratory diseases in home exposure to secondhand smoke among primary school children. A 6-month prospective case-control study based on questionnaire survey was carried out among school children of "Spiru Haret" Primary School, Medgidia, Romania, with absences for respiratory diseases, related to exposure to parental passive smoking, in their home environmental. 136 school children and their families informed, consented to complete the questionnaire and were surveyed for respiratory diseases and domestic environmental tobacco smoking, from the 1st of October, 2011 to the 31st March, 2012. The method consists in collecting data about any respiratory illness events, correlating them with the questionnaire --reports of parental smoking in home environmental.

Results: Participants were divided in 88 cases exposed to SHS (E) and 48 controls without exposure (NE). The most sick children with more than one episode of respiratory illness were among cases (n = 61/88; 69.31% vs 19/48; 39.58%; OR = 3.45; RR = 1.62; chi2 = 12.25; p < 0.0008). The most important source of parental passive smoking is the father (n = 67/88; 76.13%), being a single parent in most of the cases (n = 46/88; 57.95%). The prevalence of bronchial asthma was 0.34% in cases, being related with prenatal maternal smoking exposure (1.11%).

Conclusion: The prevalence of respiratory diseases is higher among children with environmental parental tobacco exposure, in particular, smoking father.