Frequencies of exposures and outcomes
Almost half (45.8%) the children had an infected mother (A.
lumbricoides 27.6%, T. trichiura 28.9%, hookworm 5.6%, andS. stercoralis 4.0%). Geohelminth infections during the first 5
years of life were observed in 45.5% of the 1,933 children analysed at
8 years, most frequently with A. lumbricoides (36.3%) andT. trichiura (25.5%). Other infections were hookworm (1.1%),S. stercoralis (1.5%) and Hymenolepis spp. (4.2%).
Geometric mean infection intensities at 5 years among infected children
were 1,162 eggs per gram (epg) for A. lumbricoides and 227 epg
for T. trichiura . Maternal and childhood geohelminth infections
were strongly associated; of 1,933 children, 35.5% neither maternal nor
childhood infections, 19.0% had maternal geohelminths only, 18.7% had
childhood infections only, and 26.8% had both (P<0.001). At
least one episode of wheeze from birth to 8 years of age was reported
for 38.0% of children. Prevalence of wheeze at 8 years was 6.6% and
asthma between 5 and 8 years was 7.9%. The prevalence of SPT at 8 years
was 14.7%: D. pteronyssinus/farinae 10.7%, cockroach 5.3%,
mixed fungi 0.3%, dog 0.1%, cat 0.2%, mixed grasses 1.1%, peanut
0.3%, milk 0.1%, and egg 0.1%. Bronchial hyper-responsiveness was
observed in 10% of children while evidence of airways inflammation
measured by elevated levels of FeNO (>35 ppb) and nasal
eosinophilia (>5%) was observed in 10.3% and 9.2%,
respectively.