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A case-control study of the home environment of 140 asthmatic children and 140 controls (matched for age, sex and socio-economic status) was carried out in two semi-urban Nigerian teaching hospitals. The mean age of the children was 66 months, and the mean monthly family income was US 50. 00. The average number of people in a household was seven, with a mean sleeping density of 4. 9 persons per sleeping area. There was a strong and significant association between asthma and a damp, mouldy bedroom (OR = 11. 2, p < 0. 001), household pets (OR = 116. 8, p < 0. 001), cigarette smoke (OR = 2. 1, p < 0. 01), mosquito coil (OR = 3. 7, p < 0. 001), and rodents/cockroaches (OR = 113. 7, p < 0. 001). There was a curious but unexplained protective effect of indoor biomass smoke (OR = 0. 6, p < 0. 001), indoor plants (OR = 0. 5, p < 0. 01), mould growth elsewhere in the home (OR = 0. 5, p < 0. 01), and cosmetic aerosols (OR = 0. 6, p < 0. 05). Control of the micro- as well as the macro-environment of the asthmatic child as an adjuvant to drug therapy is discussed.
Doyin et al. (Sat,) studied this question.