Vesper Stephen J, Wymer Larry, Kennedy Suzanne, Grimsley L Faye
United States Environmental Protection Agency, Cincinnati, Ohio, 45268, USA.
Rho Federal Systems Division, Inc., Chapel Hill, North Carolina, 27517, USA.
Open Respir Med J. 2013 Dec 30;7:83-6. doi: 10.2174/1874306401307010083. eCollection 2013.
Exposures to water-damaged homes/buildings has been linked to deficits in respiratory health. However, accurately quantifying this linkage has been difficult because of the methods used to assess water damage and respiratory health.
The goal of this analysis was to determine the correlation between the water-damage, as defined by the Environmental Relative Moldiness Index (ERMI) value in an asthmatic child's home, and the child's pulmonary function measured by spirometry, "forced expiratory volume in one second, percent predicted" or FEV1%.
This analysis utilized data obtained from the "Heads-off Environmental Asthma in Louisiana" (HEAL) study. The children (n= 109), 6 to 12 years of age, who had completed at least one spirometry evaluation and a dust sample collected for ERMI analysis from the home at approximately the same time as the spirometry testing, were included in the analysis. Statistical evaluation of the correlation between ERMI values and FEV1% was performed using the Spearman's Rank Correlation analysis. The relationship between ERMI values and FEV1% was performed using B-spline regression.
The average ERMI value in the HEAL study homes was 7.3. For homes with ERMI values between 2.5 and 15, there was a significant inverse correlation with the child's lung function or FEV1% measurement (Spearman's rho -0.23; p= 0.03), i.e. as the ERMI value increased, the FEV1% value decreased.
Measures of water-damage (the ERMI) and clinical assessments of lung function (FEV1%) provided a quantitative assessment of the impact of water-damaged home exposures on children's respiratory health.
接触受水损害的房屋/建筑物与呼吸健康缺陷有关。然而，由于用于评估水损害和呼吸健康的方法，准确量化这种联系一直很困难。
本分析的目的是确定哮喘儿童家中环境相对霉菌指数（ERMI）值所定义的水损害与通过肺活量测定法测量的儿童肺功能（“一秒用力呼气量，预测值百分比”或FEV1%）之间的相关性。
本分析利用了从“路易斯安那州预防环境性哮喘”（HEAL）研究中获得的数据。纳入分析的儿童（n = 109）年龄在6至12岁之间，他们至少完成了一次肺活量测定评估，并在与肺活量测定测试大致相同的时间从家中采集了用于ERMI分析的灰尘样本。使用Spearman秩相关分析对ERMI值与FEV1%之间的相关性进行统计评估。使用B样条回归分析ERMI值与FEV1%之间的关系。
HEAL研究中家庭的平均ERMI值为7.3。对于ERMI值在2.5至15之间的家庭，与儿童的肺功能或FEV1%测量值存在显著负相关（Spearman相关系数-0.23；p = 0.03），即随着ERMI值增加，FEV1%值降低。
水损害测量（ERMI）和肺功能临床评估（FEV1%）为受水损害的家庭暴露对儿童呼吸健康的影响提供了定量评估。
