Exposure-Response Relationship Between Paternal Smoking and Children's Pulmonary Function

• Published in: American journal of respiratory and critical care medicine Vol. 164; no. 6; pp. 973 - 976
• Main Authors: VENNERS, SCOTT A, WANG, XIAOBIN, CHEN, CHANGZHONG, WANG, BINYAN, NI, JIATONG, JIN, YONGTANG, YANG, JIANHUA, FANG, ZHIAN, WEISS, SCOTT T, XU, XIPING
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York, NY Am Thoracic Soc 15.09.2001; American Lung Association
• Subjects: Adolescent; Age Factors; Asthma - etiology; Asthma - physiopathology; Biological and medical sciences; Child; China; Cross-Sectional Studies; Data Interpretation, Statistical; Fathers; Female; Forced Expiratory Volume; Humans; Lung - physiology; Male; Medical sciences; Respiratory Function Tests; Sex Factors; Smoking; Tobacco Smoke Pollution - adverse effects; Tobacco, tobacco smoking; Toxicology; Tropical medicine; Vital Capacity; Asia; China; Human; Toxicology; Lung function; Respiratory disease; Tobacco smoking; Rural area; Air pollution; Exposure; Father; Child
• ISSN: 1073-449X; 1535-4970
• DOI: 10.1164/ajrccm.164.6.2009063

We conducted a cross-sectional study to investigate paternal smoking and children's pulmonary function in rural communities of Anqing, China. Our analysis included 1,718 children 8 to 15 yr of age whose mothers were never-smokers. Multiple linear regression models were used to estimate the effect of paternal smoking on children's pulmonary function, with adjustment for children's age, sex, weight, height, square of height, asthma, and father's education. When compared with children of never-smoking fathers, children of smoking fathers had small, but detectable deficits in FEV(1) (-36 ml, SE = 20) and FVC (-37 ml, SE = 22). When children of smoking fathers were subdivided into two subgroups, father smoked < 30 cigarettes/day and >/= 30 cigarettes/day, we found that children whose fathers smoked >/= 30 cigarettes/day had the largest deficits in both FEV(1) (-79 ml, SE = 30) and FVC (-71 ml, SE = 34). This monotonic exposure-response relationship remained in all strata when we further stratified our analysis by children's sex and asthma status. Our data also suggested that the relationship was greatest among nonasthmatic girls, although neither sex nor asthma interaction terms were statistically significant. We conclude that there is a monotonic exposure-response relationship between paternal smoking and decline of pulmonary function in children in this rural Chinese population.