The Association between Perceived Annoyances in the Indoor Home Environment and Respiratory Infections: A Danish Cohort Study with up to 19 Years of Follow-Up

• Published in: International journal of environmental research and public health Vol. 20; no. 3; p. 1911
• Main Authors: Kirkegaard, Anne Marie, Kloster, Stine, Davidsen, Michael, Christensen, Anne Illemann, Vestbo, Jørgen, Nielsen, Niss Skov, Ersbøll, Annette Kjær, Gunnarsen, Lars
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Switzerland MDPI AG 20.01.2023; MDPI
• Subjects: Acoustics; Air pollution; Asthma; Asthma - complications; Asthma - epidemiology; Bacterial infections; Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease; Codes; Cohort analysis; Cohort Studies; Denmark - epidemiology; Education; Emergency medical care; Ethnicity; Follow-Up Studies; Health risks; Home Environment; Hospitals; Humans; Indoor air quality; Indoor environments; Infections; Lung diseases; Missing data; Morbidity; Obstructive lung disease; Patient admissions; Perceptions; Pneumonia - epidemiology; Prescription drugs; Public health; Pulmonary Disease, Chronic Obstructive - epidemiology; Respiration; Risk factors; Surveys; Viral infections; Denmark; perceived annoyances; indoor environment; environmental epidemiology; respiratory infection
• ISSN: 1660-4601; 1661-7827; 1660-4601
• DOI: 10.3390/ijerph20031911

The increasing prevalence of reported annoyances in the indoor environment threatens public health. This study aimed to investigate the association between perceived annoyances from the home environment and respiratory infections among individuals with and without asthma or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). A total of 16,688 individuals from the Danish Health and Morbidity Survey initiated in 2000 were grouped according to their patterns of perceived annoyances. Information on respiratory infections (all causes, bacterial, viral, and those leading to hospital admissions) was obtained from Danish registers up to 19 years after the survey. Poisson regression of incidence rates (IRs) was applied to estimate incidence rate ratios (IRRs). Annoyances significantly increased the IR for respiratory infections of all causes and bacterial respiratory infections in individuals without asthma or COPD, adjusted IRR 1.16 (95% CI: 1.01, 1.34) and 1.15 (95% CI: 1.02, 1.31), respectively. However, no difference was observed for viral respiratory infections nor hospital admissions. Individuals with asthma or COPD and a high level of annoyances had a non-significantly increased IR in all four analyses of respiratory infections. These findings provide support for perceived annoyances as an important risk factor for respiratory infections.