Table 4

Associations of decline in adult forced expiratory volume in 1 s (FEV1)* with (A) individual childhood disadvantage factors and (B) the number of childhood disadvantage factors in 5608 subjects with complete data

Adjusted decline in FEV1 (ΔFEV1†, ml/year) (95% CI)p Value
(A)
Baseline decline (ml/year)‡−23.2
Maternal asthma−0.5 (−3.7 to 2.7)0.770
Paternal asthma−2.1 (−5.3 to 1.0)0.186
Childhood asthma−5.9 (−10.7 to −1.2)0.013
Severe respiratory infection <5 years−1.1 (−3.6 to 1.4)0.385
Maternal smoking−1.3 (−3.2 to 0.6)0.175
(B)
Baseline decline (ml/year)‡−23.4
Number of childhood factors
    1−2.0 (−3.6 to −0.4)0.014
    2−3.8 (−6.6 to −1.0)0.009
    ⩾3−2.2 (−9.2 to 4.8)0.542
        p for trend0.003
For comparison:
Adult smoking status
    Ex3.5 (1.8 to 5.3)<0.001
    Current <10 cig/day−0.7 (−3.7 to 2.3)0.639
    Current 10–20 cig/day−4.0 (−6.9 to −1.1)0.006
    Current >20 cig/day−9.5 (−11.9 to −7.0)<0.001

  • *Decline in forced expiratory volume in 1 s in ml per year of follow-up (FEV1 in ECRHS II minus FEV1 in ECRHS I).

  • †Difference in decline in FEV1 in ml per year of follow-up (A) between subjects with and subjects without childhood factor when adjusting for other childhood factors in the table and (B) between subjects with a specific number of childhood factors and subjects with zero childhood factors. Adjusted for FEV1 at baseline, mid age, mid age2, height at ECRHS II, change in BMI, mid BMI, sex, interaction between sex and change in BMI, smoking, age at completed education, social class and centre as random effect.

  • ‡Baseline decline in FEV1 per year of follow-up in never-smoking, high education, professional subjects of median age, median height and median BMI with none of the childhood disadvantage factors.

  • §Estimates for adult smoking are presented in order to enable comparisons of estimates. The estimates are from model B, but are practically identical for model A.