Comparisons of effects of maternal and childhood geohelminths by SPT
Effects of maternal and childhood geohelminths, species-specific effects, and effects by parasite burden are shown in Table 4 and supplementary Tables 4 and 5. Maternal geohelminths were positively associated with wheeze (adj. OR 1.73), an effect that appeared to be explained by maternal T. trichiura infections (adj. OR 1.78), while a maternal effect on asthma was associated with moderate to heavy infection intensities with A. lumbricoides (vs. uninfected, adj. 2.11) (Table 4). To separate contrasting effects of maternal vs. childhood T. trichiura on wheeze in non-atopic children, we did a 4-group analysis by strata of maternal/child T. trichiurainfection using maternal-/child- as reference group: we observed that mother+/child- children had an elevated risk of wheeze (adj. OR 2.27, 95% CI 1.31-3.92, P=0.003), an effect that was abolished by childhood infections (mother+/child+, adj. OR 0.78, 95% CI 0.33-1.83, P=0.573). Neither any maternal nor any childhood geohelminth infections were associated with airways reactivity, elevated FeNO, or nasal eosinophilia irrespective of atopy (supplementary Table 4). Analyses by parasite species and burden showed effects among non-atopic children (supplementary Table 5): 1) light infection intensities with T. trichiura in mothers were positively (vs. uninfected, adj. OR 1.56, 95% CI 1.05-2.01, P=0.028) but childhood T. trichiura infections inversely (adj. OR 0.62, 95% CI 0.40-0.96, P=0.031) associated with airways reactivity; 2) childhood A. lumbricoides (adj. OR 1.61, 95% CI 1.07-2.42, P=0.021) and moderate/heavy infection intensities with A. lumbricoides in mothers (vs. uninfected, adj. OR 2.89, 95% CI 1.53-5.49, P=0.001) were positively associated with elevated FeNO; and 3) nasal eosinophilia was associated with moderate/heavy infections with A. lumbricoides in mothers (vs. uninfected, adj. OR 2.27, 95% CI 1.00-5.12, P=0.049).