Genetic determinants of height growth assessed longitudinally from infancy to adulthood in the northern Finland birth cohort 1966.

Recent genome-wide association (GWA) studies have identified dozens of common variants associated with adult height. However, it is unknown how these variants influence height growth during childhood. We derived peak height velocity in infancy (PHV1) and puberty (PHV2) and timing of pubertal height growth spurt from parametric growth curves fitted to longitudinal height growth data to test their association with known height variants.

Traffic-related air pollution and asthma onset in children: a prospective cohort study with individual exposure measurement.

Background: The question of whether air pollution contributes to asthma onset remains unresolved.

Objectives: In this study, we assessed the association between asthma onset in children and traffic-related air pollution.

Methods: We selected a sample of 217 children from participants in the Southern California Children's Health Study, a prospective cohort designed to investigate associations between air pollution and respiratory health in children 10-18 years of age.

Dog ownership enhances symptomatic responses to air pollution in children with asthma.

Background: Experimental data suggest that asthma exacerbation by ambient air pollutants is enhanced by exposure to endotoxin and allergens; however, there is little supporting epidemiologic evidence.

Methods: We evaluated whether the association of exposure to air pollution with annual prevalence of chronic cough, phlegm production, or bronchitis was modified by dog and cat ownership (indicators of allergen and endotoxin exposure). The study population consisted of 475 Southern California children with asthma from a longitudinal cohort of participants in the Children's Health Study.

Prospective study of air pollution and bronchitic symptoms in children with asthma.

The relationship of bronchitic symptoms to ambient particulate matter and to particulate elemental and organic carbon (OC), nitrogen dioxide (NO2), and other gaseous pollutants was examined in a cohort of children with asthma in 12 Southern California communities. Symptoms, assessed yearly by questionnaire from 1996 to 1999, were associated with the yearly variability of particulate matter with aerodynamic diameter less than 2.5 microg (odds ratio [OR] 1.