TABLE 15.
Percentages of buildings positive for common fungal species sorted by reason for submission and odds ratios for association with reported health effects
| Organism(s) | % of buildings positive
|
Odds ratiod | P value | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Health (n = 45)a | Visible fungi (n = 8)b | Water damage (n = 8)c | Proactive (n = 16) | |||
| Acremonium | 9 | 25 | 0 | 19 | 0.4 | 0.4 |
| Aspergillus speciesf | 71 | 83 | 75 | 69 | 1.1 | 1.0 |
| Aspergillus flavus | 2 | 13 | 25 | 0 | Undefinedg | 1.0 |
| Aspergillus fumigatus | 20 | 38 | 25 | 31 | 0.6 | 0.5 |
| Aspergillus niger | 22 | 38 | 25 | 19 | 1.2 | 1.0 |
| Aspergillus versicolor | 40 | 63 | 38 | 25 | 2.0 | 0.4 |
| Alternaria | 13 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Undefined | 0.3 |
| Aureobasidium | 18 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Undefined | 0.1 |
| Candida | 4 | 0 | 0 | 6 | 0.7 | 1.0 |
| Cladosporium | 87 | 100 | 63 | 94 | 0.4 | 0.7 |
| Curvularia | 22 | 13 | 0 | 6 | 4.3 | 0.3 |
| Epicoccum | 7 | 0 | 0 | 13 | 0.5 | 0.6 |
| Fusarium | 11 | 13 | 0 | 13 | 0.9 | 1.0 |
| Geotrichum | 24 | 50 | 38 | 31 | 0.7 | 0.7 |
| Hyalodendron | 16 | 0 | 13 | 19 | 0.8 | 0.7 |
| Nonsporulating fungi | 80 | 100 | 50 | 69 | 1.8 | 0.5 |
| Penicillium | 82 | 100 | 63 | 88 | 0.7 | 1.0 |
| Rhinocladiella | 16 | 25 | 25 | 19 | 0.8 | 0.7 |
| Rhodotorula | 36 | 38 | 25 | 31 | 1.2 | 1.0 |
| Stachybotrys | 4 | 38 | 25 | 0 | Undefined | 1.0 |
| Trichoderma | 11 | 13 | 13 | 13 | 0.9 | 1.0 |
| Unidentified fungi | 7 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Undefined | 0.6 |
| Yeast | 22 | 13 | 25 | 25 | 0.9 | 1.0 |
The questionnaire responses for health included the following categories: eye, throat, cough, shortness of breath, headache, skin, hypersensitivity pneumonitis, and other. For purposes of analysis, health included health, odor and health, water damage and health, visual growth and health, odor and visual growth and health, and water damage and visual growth and health.
For purposes of analysis, visible fungi included visual growth and visual growth and water damage.
For purposes of analysis, water damage included water damage and odor and water damage.
The odds ratio measures the association between reporting of health effects and detection of fungal type in buildings using as the comparison category buildings for which proactive was reported as the reason for submission. For example, the odds ratio for Acremonium is (0.09)(1 − 0.19) ÷ [(1 − 0.09) × (0.19)] = 0.4.
Aspergillus species includes Eurotium, Emericella, A. flavus, A. fumigatus, A. niger, A. versicolor, and all other Aspergillus species listed in Table 3.
For undefined odds ratios the denominator is zero.