Comparisons of effects of maternal and childhood geohelminths by
SPT
Effects of maternal and childhood geohelminths, species-specific
effects, and effects by parasite burden are shown in Table 4 and
supplementary Tables 4 and 5. Maternal geohelminths were positively
associated with wheeze (adj. OR 1.73), an effect that appeared to be
explained by maternal T. trichiura infections (adj. OR 1.78),
while a maternal effect on asthma was associated with moderate to heavy
infection intensities with A. lumbricoides (vs. uninfected, adj.
2.11) (Table 4). To separate contrasting effects of maternal vs.
childhood T. trichiura on wheeze in non-atopic children, we did a
4-group analysis by strata of maternal/child T. trichiurainfection using maternal-/child- as reference group: we observed that
mother+/child- children had an elevated risk of wheeze (adj. OR 2.27,
95% CI 1.31-3.92, P=0.003), an effect that was abolished by childhood
infections (mother+/child+, adj. OR 0.78, 95% CI 0.33-1.83, P=0.573).
Neither any maternal nor any childhood geohelminth infections were
associated with airways reactivity, elevated FeNO, or nasal eosinophilia
irrespective of atopy (supplementary Table 4). Analyses by parasite
species and burden showed effects among non-atopic children
(supplementary Table 5): 1) light infection intensities with T.
trichiura in mothers were positively (vs. uninfected, adj. OR 1.56,
95% CI 1.05-2.01, P=0.028) but childhood T. trichiura infections
inversely (adj. OR 0.62, 95% CI 0.40-0.96, P=0.031) associated with
airways reactivity; 2) childhood A. lumbricoides (adj. OR 1.61,
95% CI 1.07-2.42, P=0.021) and moderate/heavy infection intensities
with A. lumbricoides in mothers (vs. uninfected, adj. OR 2.89,
95% CI 1.53-5.49, P=0.001) were positively associated with elevated
FeNO; and 3) nasal eosinophilia was associated with moderate/heavy
infections with A. lumbricoides in mothers (vs. uninfected, adj.
OR 2.27, 95% CI 1.00-5.12, P=0.049).