Evidence map›Paper›PMID 16847033›Full record

ArticleOccupational and environmental medicine2007

Ecological association between childhood asthma and availability of indoor chlorinated swimming pools in Europe.

M Nickmilder, A Bernard

Abstract readMulticenter Study
In one paragraph

Article in Occupational and environmental medicine, 2007. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 13 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
13citing papers in PubMed, 1 pooled it
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from 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.

2 · The registry

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.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

13 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.

  1. Pooled it
  2. Article
  3. Article
  4. Article
  5. Article
  6. Exercise and asthma: an overview.European clinical respiratory journal · 2015
    Article
  7. Article
  8. Article
  9. Prevalence of bronchial asthma in Indian children.Indian journal of community medicine : official publication of Indian Association of Preventive & Social Medicine · 2009
    Article
  10. Review
  11. The respiratory health of swimmers.Sports medicine (Auckland, N.Z.) · 2009
    Review
  12. The chlorine hypothesis: fact or fiction?Occupational and environmental medicine · 2007
    Review
  13. Review
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

2 authors.

M NickmilderDepartment of Public Health, Catholic University of Louvain, Brussels, Belgium.
A Bernard

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

backgroundIt has been hypothesised that the rise in childhood asthma in the developed world could result at least in part from the increasing exposure of children to toxic chlorination products in the air of indoor swimming pools.

objectivesEcological study to evaluate whether this hypothesis can explain the geographical variation in the prevalence of asthma and other atopic diseases in Europe.

methodsThe relationships between the prevalences of wheezing by written or video questionnaire, of ever asthma, hay fever, rhinitis, and atopic eczema as reported by the International Study of Asthma and Allergies in Childhood (ISAAC), and the number of indoor chlorinated swimming pools per inhabitant in the studied centres were examined. Associations with geoclimatic variables, the gross domestic product (GDP) per capita, and several other lifestyle indicators were also evaluated.

resultsAmong children aged 13-14 years, the prevalence of wheezing by written questionnaire, of wheezing by video questionnaire, and of ever asthma across Europe increased respectively by 3.39% (95% CI 1.96 to 4.81), 0.96% (95% CI 0.28 to 1.64), and 2.73% (95% CI 1.94 to 3.52), with an increase of one indoor chlorinated pool per 100 000 inhabitants. Similar increases were found when analysing separately centres in Western or Northern Europe and for ever asthma in Southern Europe. In children aged 6-7 years (33 centres), the prevalence of ever asthma also increased with swimming pool availability (1.47%; 95% CI 0.21 to 2.74). These consistent associations were not found with other atopic diseases and were independent of the influence of altitude, climate, and GDP per capita.

conclusionsThe prevalence of childhood asthma and availability of indoor swimming pools in Europe are linked through associations that are consistent with the hypothesis implicating pool chlorine in the rise of childhood asthma in industrialised countries.

Indexed as

AdolescentAsthmaChildChlorineDisinfectantsEuropeFemaleHumansHypersensitivity, ImmediateMalePrevalenceRisk FactorsSwimmingSwimming PoolsWater PurificationChlorineDisinfectants

Identifiers

PMID16847033
PMCPMC2092577

What OpenQuestion holds

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Registered trials

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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.