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High burden of atopy in immigrant families in substandard apartments in Sweden – on the contribution of bad housing to poor health in vulnerable populations

BACKGROUND: Atopic disorders are a global concern. Studies in migrant populations can illuminate the interplay of genetic and environmental factors. Exposures related to bad housing (indoor dampness, mould growth, crowding etc.) are likely to play a role in how socioeconomic inequalities can turn in...

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Autores principales: Richter, Jens Christian, Jakobsson, Kristina, Taj, Tahir, Oudin, Anna
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: BioMed Central 2018
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5952630/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29796150
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s40413-018-0188-1
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author Richter, Jens Christian
Jakobsson, Kristina
Taj, Tahir
Oudin, Anna
author_facet Richter, Jens Christian
Jakobsson, Kristina
Taj, Tahir
Oudin, Anna
author_sort Richter, Jens Christian
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: Atopic disorders are a global concern. Studies in migrant populations can illuminate the interplay of genetic and environmental factors. Exposures related to bad housing (indoor dampness, mould growth, crowding etc.) are likely to play a role in how socioeconomic inequalities can turn into health disparities for disadvantaged populations. The sizable immigrant population living in very poor-quality housing in Malmö, Sweden, became the focus of a cross-sectional study. OBJECTIVE: To describe atopic disorders and sensitizations in a population living in substandard housing in Malmö, Sweden, with an emphasis on their relation to harmful exposures from the built environment. METHODS: Families were recruited via identification of any children with symptomatic airway afflictions from health care records, and also asymptomatic children from school lists. Interviewer-led health questionnaire data and data from self-reports about living conditions were obtained together with data from home inspections carried out by health communicators. Families underwent skin prick tests (SPT) against common aeroallergens. RESULTS: As could be expected from background demographic information, it turned out that we effectively studied an immigrant population inhabiting very precarious housing outside the center of Malmö. A total of 359 children from 130 families (total 650 participants) were included. Overall the prevalence of potentially harmful environmental exposures was high (signs of moisture or mould in more than 50% of apartments, indoor smoking in 37% of households). Atopic disorders were common among both adults and children. SPTs showed a spectrum of sensitizations consistent with unselected populations in Sweden. Paternal sensitization in the SPT was associated with higher risk of sensitization for offspring than maternal sensitization. Few statistically significant associations of atopic sensitization with studied environmental exposures were detected (for example objective signs of dampness /mould in bathrooms). There were marked discrepancies between asthma diagnoses obtained from the health records and parental reports of such diagnoses and treatment for their children. CONCLUSIONS: The atopic burden in this selected immigrant population was high, and results point to unmet medical needs. Health care systems caring for such populations need to be aware of their specific health needs; comprehensive asthma and allergy care should include consideration of harmful environmental exposures, adhering to the precautionary principle.
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spelling pubmed-59526302018-05-24 High burden of atopy in immigrant families in substandard apartments in Sweden – on the contribution of bad housing to poor health in vulnerable populations Richter, Jens Christian Jakobsson, Kristina Taj, Tahir Oudin, Anna World Allergy Organ J Original Research BACKGROUND: Atopic disorders are a global concern. Studies in migrant populations can illuminate the interplay of genetic and environmental factors. Exposures related to bad housing (indoor dampness, mould growth, crowding etc.) are likely to play a role in how socioeconomic inequalities can turn into health disparities for disadvantaged populations. The sizable immigrant population living in very poor-quality housing in Malmö, Sweden, became the focus of a cross-sectional study. OBJECTIVE: To describe atopic disorders and sensitizations in a population living in substandard housing in Malmö, Sweden, with an emphasis on their relation to harmful exposures from the built environment. METHODS: Families were recruited via identification of any children with symptomatic airway afflictions from health care records, and also asymptomatic children from school lists. Interviewer-led health questionnaire data and data from self-reports about living conditions were obtained together with data from home inspections carried out by health communicators. Families underwent skin prick tests (SPT) against common aeroallergens. RESULTS: As could be expected from background demographic information, it turned out that we effectively studied an immigrant population inhabiting very precarious housing outside the center of Malmö. A total of 359 children from 130 families (total 650 participants) were included. Overall the prevalence of potentially harmful environmental exposures was high (signs of moisture or mould in more than 50% of apartments, indoor smoking in 37% of households). Atopic disorders were common among both adults and children. SPTs showed a spectrum of sensitizations consistent with unselected populations in Sweden. Paternal sensitization in the SPT was associated with higher risk of sensitization for offspring than maternal sensitization. Few statistically significant associations of atopic sensitization with studied environmental exposures were detected (for example objective signs of dampness /mould in bathrooms). There were marked discrepancies between asthma diagnoses obtained from the health records and parental reports of such diagnoses and treatment for their children. CONCLUSIONS: The atopic burden in this selected immigrant population was high, and results point to unmet medical needs. Health care systems caring for such populations need to be aware of their specific health needs; comprehensive asthma and allergy care should include consideration of harmful environmental exposures, adhering to the precautionary principle. BioMed Central 2018-05-15 /pmc/articles/PMC5952630/ /pubmed/29796150 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s40413-018-0188-1 Text en © The Author(s). 2018 Open Access This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.
spellingShingle Original Research
Richter, Jens Christian
Jakobsson, Kristina
Taj, Tahir
Oudin, Anna
High burden of atopy in immigrant families in substandard apartments in Sweden – on the contribution of bad housing to poor health in vulnerable populations
title High burden of atopy in immigrant families in substandard apartments in Sweden – on the contribution of bad housing to poor health in vulnerable populations
title_full High burden of atopy in immigrant families in substandard apartments in Sweden – on the contribution of bad housing to poor health in vulnerable populations
title_fullStr High burden of atopy in immigrant families in substandard apartments in Sweden – on the contribution of bad housing to poor health in vulnerable populations
title_full_unstemmed High burden of atopy in immigrant families in substandard apartments in Sweden – on the contribution of bad housing to poor health in vulnerable populations
title_short High burden of atopy in immigrant families in substandard apartments in Sweden – on the contribution of bad housing to poor health in vulnerable populations
title_sort high burden of atopy in immigrant families in substandard apartments in sweden – on the contribution of bad housing to poor health in vulnerable populations
topic Original Research
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5952630/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29796150
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s40413-018-0188-1
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