ArticleThorax2005
Childhood exposure to environmental tobacco smoke and chronic respiratory symptoms in non-smoking adults: the Singapore Chinese Health Study.
Article in Thorax, 2005. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 25 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
25 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 61 citations in OpenAlex.
- Prevalence of non-smoking chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and its risk factors in China: a systematic review and meta-analysis.BMC public health · 2024Pooled it
- Trial
- Increased Incidence of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease in Women Due to Long-Term Passive Smoking.International journal of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease · 2025Article
- Secondhand smoke increases the risk of developing chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.Scientific reports · 2024Article
- Health effects associated with exposure to secondhand smoke: a Burden of Proof study.Nature medicine · 2024Article
- Respiratory Health of Pacific Youth: An Observational Study of Associated Risk and Protective Factors Throughout Childhood.JMIR research protocols · 2020Article
- Environmental triggers for chronic cough.Asia Pacific allergy · 2019Review
- A Small Molecule BH3-mimetic Suppresses Cigarette Smoke-Induced Mucous Expression in Airway Epithelial Cells.Scientific reports · 2018Article
- Partnering and parenting transitions associate with changing smoking status: a cohort study in young Australians.International journal of public health · 2017Article
- Asthma diagnosis in a child and cessation of smoking in the child's home: the PIAMA birth cohort.Journal of exposure science & environmental epidemiology · 2017Article
- Impact of Air Pollution on Age and Gender Related Increase in Cough Reflex Sensitivity of Healthy Children in Slovakia.Frontiers in physiology · 2016Article
- COPD in Nonsmokers: Reports from the Tunisian Population-Based Burden of Obstructive Lung Disease Study.PloS one · 2016Article
- Chronic cough: an Asian perspective. Part 1: Epidemiology.Asia Pacific allergy · 2015Review
- Whey peptide-based enteral diet attenuated elastase-induced emphysema with increase in short chain fatty acids in mice.BMC pulmonary medicine · 2015Article
- Infertility, Pregnancy Loss and Adverse Birth Outcomes in Relation to Maternal Secondhand Tobacco Smoke Exposure.Current women's health reviews · 2013Article
- A cross-sectional study of secondhand smoke exposure and respiratory symptoms in non-current smokers in the U.S. trucking industry: SHS exposure and respiratory symptoms.BMC public health · 2013Article
- Article
- Pulmonary function and incident bronchitis and asthma in children: a community-based prospective cohort study.PloS one · 2012Article
- Parental perceptions and beliefs about childhood asthma: a cross-sectional study.Croatian medical journal · 2011Article
- Association of environmental tobacco smoke exposure in childhood with early emphysema in adulthood among nonsmokers: the MESA-lung study.American journal of epidemiology · 2010Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
5 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundChildhood exposure to environmental tobacco smoke has been extensively associated with childhood respiratory illness; fewer studies have addressed the effects on adults.
methodsChildhood environmental tobacco smoke exposure in relation to chronic cough, phlegm, and asthma diagnosis was studied in never smokers from a cohort of Singaporeans of Chinese ethnicity aged 45-74 years at enrollment from 1993 to 1998. From 1999 to 2004 subjects were interviewed regarding environmental tobacco smoke exposure before and after the age of 18 and the presence and duration of current symptoms of chronic cough and phlegm production and asthma diagnosis.
resultsAmong 35,000 never smokers, fewer had smoking mothers (19%) than fathers (48%). Although few subjects currently lived (20%) or worked (4%) with smokers, 65% reported living with a daily smoker before the age of 18 years. Living with a smoker before the age of 18 increased the odds of chronic dry cough (149 cases, odds ratio 2.1, 95% CI 1.4 to 3.3) and, to a lesser extent, phlegm, after adjustment for age, sex, dialect group, and current and past exposure to smokers at home and at work after the age of 18. Associations strengthened with higher numbers of smokers in childhood. There was no association with asthma or chronic bronchitis. There was evidence to suggest a stronger association among subjects with a lower adult intake of fibre which has previously been found to be protective for respiratory symptoms.
conclusionsIn this large study of non-smokers, living with a smoker in childhood was associated with chronic dry cough and phlegm in adulthood, independent of later exposures to environmental tobacco smoke.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.