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. 2021 Jan 23;49(6):1856-1869.
doi: 10.1093/ije/dyaa085.

Parental occupational exposure pre- and post-conception and development of asthma in offspring

Kathrine Pape  1   2 , Cecile Svanes  3   4 , Camilla S Sejbæk  1 , Andrei Malinovschi  5 , Byndis Benediktsdottir  6   7 , Bertil Forsberg  8 , Christer Janson  9 , Geza Benke  10 , Gro Tjalvin  11 , José Luis Sánchez-Ramos  12 , Jan-Paul Zock  13   14   15 , Kjell Toren  16 , Lennart Bråbäck  8 , Mathias Holm  17 , Rain Jõgi  18 , Randi J Bertelsen  19   20 , Thorarin Gíslason  5   6   7   21 , Torben Sigsgaard  2 , Xiaoqin Liu  22 , Karin S Hougaard  1   23 , Ane Johannessen  3 , Caroline Lodge  24 , Shyamali C Dharmage  24 , Vivi Schlünssen  1   2
Affiliations

Parental occupational exposure pre- and post-conception and development of asthma in offspring

Kathrine Pape et al. Int J Epidemiol. .

Abstract

Background: While direct effects of occupational exposures on an individual's respiratory health are evident, a new paradigm is emerging on the possible effects of pre-conception occupational exposure on respiratory health in offspring. We aimed to study the association between parental occupational exposure starting before conception and asthma in their offspring (at 0-15 years of age).

Methods: We studied 3985 offspring participating in the Respiratory Health in Northern Europe, Spain and Australia (RHINESSA) generation study. Their mothers or fathers (n = 2931) previously participated in the European Community Respiratory Health Survey (ECRHS). Information was obtained from questionnaires on parental job history pre- and post-conception which was linked to an asthma-specific job-exposure matrix (JEM). We assessed the association between parental occupational exposure and offspring asthma, applying logistic regression models, clustered by family and adjusted for study centre, offspring sex, parental characteristics (age, asthma onset, place of upbringing, smoking) and grandparents' level of education.

Results: Parental occupational exposure to microorganisms, pesticides, allergens or reactive chemicals pre-conception or both pre- and post-conception was not related to offspring asthma; in general, subgroup analyses confirmed this result. However, maternal exposure both pre- and post-conception to allergens and reactive chemicals was associated with increased odds for early-onset asthma in offspring (0-3 years of age); odds ratio 1.70 (95% CI: 1.02-2.84) and 1.65 (95% CI: 0.98-2.77), respectively.

Conclusions: This study did not find evidence that parental occupational exposure, defined by an asthma JEM before conception only or during pre- and post-conception vs non-exposed, was associated with offspring asthma.

Keywords: job-exposure matrices; Epidemiology; air pollutants; asthma; generation study; occupation; occupational exposure.

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Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Flowchart of the exclusion process of the study population. Model 1 + 2—full information of study centre, offspring’s sex, parent’s characteristics (sex, age, asthma onset, place of upbringing and smoking) and grandmother’s and grandfather’s educational level. Model 3—full information of Model 1 + 2 and parent’s educational level. *Occupational exposures of interest: 1, microorganisms (moulds, endotoxin); 2, pesticides (herbicides, insecticides, fungicides); 3, allergens (animals, flour, house dust mites, storage mites, plant mites, enzymes, latex, fish/shellfish); 4, reactive chemicals (high level chemical disinfectants, isocyanates, acrylates, epoxy resins, persulfates/henna, aliphatic amines, bleach).
Figure 2
Figure 2
Exposure windows: 1) pre-conception only; 2) both pre- and post-conception; 3) post-birth only (not included due to power issues); 4) unexposed.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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