A survey was done among 40 010 children aged three to six-years in seven Chinese cities, including Beijing, Taiyuan, Urumqi, Shanghai, Nanjing, Changsha, and Chongqing, during 2010-2012 to investigate the most probable associations between childhood eczema and home renovation. The parents of the children answered to questions on home renovation and childhood eczema. Multivariate with two-level (city-child) logistic regression analyses yielding odds ratios with almost 95% confidence intervals were done. Sensitivity analyses stratifying data for climate, region and income level were also done. The occurrence of childhood eczema with different floor and wall covering materials were considerably different and were also significantly higher with home renovation in children. Exposure to synthetic materials also significantly increased the risk of childhood eczema by 20%-25%. The risks of existing eczema among children in families having solid wood flooring and oil paint wall covering were 1.25 and 1.35, respectively. Thus, this survey concluded that home renovation during pregnancy is related to childrens lifetime and present eczema.

Source: Sun C, Zhang J, Huang C, et al. High prevalence of eczema among preschool children related to home renovation in China: A multi-city-based cross-sectional study. Indoor Air. 2019 Sep;29(5):748-760. doi: 10.1111/ina.12586. Epub 2019 Jul 11.