THE HOME ENVIRONMENT AND ALLERGIES AMONG BULGARIAN CHILDREN

摘要

To explore the role of home exposures on allergies and asthma among children, the ALLHOME project was initiated in Bulgaria. Parents of 6155 out of 12982 children (2-7 years old, girls/boys: 47.6 %/52.4 %), obtained from the National register, participated in a cross-sectional study, performed in 2004. Two towns were included in the survey: the seacoast town of Bourgas and inland town of Sofia. All children were bom in any of the two towns and their parents participated in the study by filling out questionnaires sent to them by post or attending a phone call survey or filling out the web version of the questionnaire. Data on the index child's and family's health,residence, water leakages, flooding, condensation, visible mould, smoking, food, pet keeping, TV and PC use,were collected in 88 questions. The questions were identical to those used in the study "Dampness in Buildings and Health" (2000), performed in Sweden, except for few questions, adapted or changed due to the country's specificity.