F. T. Shannon

Parental smoking and lower respiratory illness in the first three years of life.

The relationships between parental smoking and the rates of lower respiratory illness during the first three years of life were examined for a birth cohort of 1265 New Zealand children. Lower respiratory illness varied significantly with maternal smoking for the first year; there was equivocal evidence of a relationship between maternal smoking and lower respiratory illness in the second year; and by third year the relationship had clearly disappeared. Paternal smoking had no significant effect on rates of lower respiratory illness at any time. Application of logistic regression showed that for the first year rates of lower respiratory illness were approximately linearly related to maternal smoking: increases of five cigarettes a day resulted in an increase of 2.5 to 3.5 incidents of lower respiratory illness per 100 children at risk. Statistical control for maternal age, education, family size, and family living standards showed that the relationship between maternal smoking and rates of lower respiratory illness was not significantly influenced by these factors.

Parental smoking and respiratory illness in infancy.

The relationship between parental smoking and respiratory illness in a birth cohort of 1180 one-year-old children was examined. Maternal smoking was associated with an increased incidence of lower respiratory illness but there was no statistically significant association between paternal smoking and lower respiratory illness. While children of mothers who smoked suffered more lower respiratory illnesses, their overall risk of respiratory infection was similar to that for children of nonsmoking mothers. The association between maternal smoking and infantile lower respiratory illness persisted when the childs social background, perinatal history, and postnatal diet were taken into account. The findings favour the view that prolonged exposure to cigarette smoke predisposes infants to develop lower respiratory symptoms when they contract a respiratory infection.

Asthma and infant diet.

The relationship of milk diet and solid feeding practices during the first 4 months of life to rates of early childhood asthma was studied prospectively in a birth cohort of 1110 children. The results of the analysis showed no significant association between rates of asthma and breast feeding or solid feeding practices. This was true for children both of asthmatic and non-asthmatic parentage. It is concluded that there is no evidence to indicate that early breast feeding had any detectable effect on the risk of subsequent asthma in this birth cohort. However, the possibility still remains that breast feeding may have a prophylactic effect for children from highly atopic families.

A proportional hazards model of family breakdown

Rates of family breakdown were studied in a birth cohort of New Zealand children during the period from birth to 5 years. Family breakdown occurred at a steady rate of approximately 2.3% per annum with the result that by 5 years just under one child in every eight had experienced a family breakdown. Rates of breakdown were related to a series of family formation and social factors including length of marriage type of marriage family size planning of pregnancy parental age family socioeconomic status and church attendance. The various risk factors related to family breakdown are modeled using a proportional hazards model. Marked differences in rates of family breakdown by characteristics of childs family are noted. The theoretical and empirical implications of the results are discussed. (EXCERPT)

Breast‐feeding, gastrointestinal and lower respiratory illness in the first two years

ABSTRACT. The relationships between breast‐feeding practices and the rates of gastro‐intestinal and lower respiratory illness during the first two years of life were examined for a birth cohort of New Zealand infants. During the first four months, there were significant tendencies for rates of gastro‐intestinal illness to decrease with increasing duration of breast feeding. These trends remained significant when the effects of a number of social and familial factors were taken into account. There was no association between duration of breast‐feeding and rates of gastro‐intestinal illness beyond four months. Prolonged breast‐feeding was associated with significantly lower rates of lower respiratory illness during both the first and second years. However, when the effects of social and familial factors were taken into account the apparent associations between duration of breast‐feeding and rates of lower respiratory illness became non‐significant. The implications of these findings are discussed.

Risk factors in childhood eczema.

The cumulative rate of childhood eczema during the first three years was studied in a birth cohort of 1265 New Zealand infants. A parental history of eczema was the strongest predictor of rates of childhood eczema but parental asthma was also related to childhood eczema. Children exposed to an early diverse solid-food diet also had increased risks of eczema, but there was no evidence to suggest that breast-feeding practices had any effect on rates of eczema. Analysis of the data suggested that the apparent association between exclusive breast-feeding and reduced rates of eczema reported in previous studies may be because exclusively breast-fed infants were not exposed to early solid feeding rather than to any beneficial effect of breast milk itself.

Accidental poisoning in the first three years of life.

ABSTRACT. The incidence of accidental poisoning was examined prospectively in a birth cohort of 1124 children.

The utilisation of preschool health and education services

The distribution of the utilisation of health and education services during the period from birth to 5 years was studied in a birth cohort of New Zealand children. Overall patterns of service utilisation showed the presence of considerable inequities with children in the lowest 8% of the distribution receiving seven or fewer of the available services in contrast to the children in the top 8% of the distribution who received in excess of 15 services. Patterns of service utilisation showed a clear tendency to vary with the childs social and familial characteristics with children from socially disadvantaged home backgrounds, unplanned and later born children, children from economically depressed home environments and children in families facing various forms of stress and adversity showing a clear tendency to receive less care than other children. Path modelling of the results suggested that the childs family social background and family composition made the largest direct contributions to variations in rates of service utilisation with family economic situation and levels of adversity having smaller but nonetheless statistically significant effects. It is concluded that the findings provide a clear case study of the way in which well intentioned social policies may emphasise rather than eliminate inequities in the care received by children.

Infant Health and Breast-Feeding During the First 16 Weeks of Life

Infant health and breast feeding during the first 16 weeks of life. The relationship between the method of infant feeding and health during the first sixteen weeks of life was examined in a cohort of 1,210 children.

Parental asthma, parental eczema and asthma and eczema in early childhood

Abstract The relationship between parental asthma, parental eczema and asthma and eczema in early childhood was studied in a birth cohort of New Zealand 4-yr-olds. Application of logistic regression and log linear modelling methods revealed the presence of a complicated system of relationships between asthma and eczema in parents and the occurrence of these conditions in early childhood. For boys, the presence of parental asthma increased the risk of early childhood asthma by nearly 2 1 2 times, whereas parental asthma was unrelated to early asthma in girls. For both sexes the presence of parental eczema increased the risks of childhood eczema. Analysis of the joint parental asthma, parental eczema, child asthma, child eczema distributions suggested that the presence of a specific component of inheritance in childhood asthma and childhood eczema so that asthma in parents was associated with asthma but not eczema in boys and eczema in parents was associated with eczema but not asthma in both sexes. However, there was an additional generalised tendency for both asthma and eczema in children to occur together. It is concluded that the widely held belief that asthma and eczema in parents are non-specifically related to the occurrence of these conditions in early childhood reflecting the presence of a general and undifferentiated familial tendency to atopic disease is, at best, an oversimplification of the complex relationships which exist between parental asthma, parental eczema and the occurrence of these conditions in early childhood.