Table 3.

Odds ratios [per change in interquartile range (IQR) in exposure] of granulomatous disease (GD)- or asthma-like symptoms^a, or epidemiologically defined asthma for microbial measurements in dust from single environmental variable models adjusted for age, gender, smoking status (non-smoker/former vs. current smoker), and building tenure

Health outcomes	Microbial measurements, odds ratio per IQR increase (95% confidence interval)
	Thermophilic actinomycetes	Non-tuberculuous mycobacteria	Total culturable bacteria	Endotoxin
Any GD-like symptoms in the last 4 weeks	3.1 (1.45–6.73)**	1.2 (0.80–1.93)	0.8 (0.55–1.29)	1.0 (0.55–1.86)
Shortness of breath on exertion	1.7 (0.81–3.71)	1.1 (0.68–1.73)	0.7 (0.44–1.24)	0.7 (0.37–1.40)
Fever and chills	1.0 (0.23–4.28)	1.5 (0.71–3.07)	1.0 (0.43–2.40)	1.2 (0.33–4.67)
Flu-like achiness	2.4 (1.10–5.07)**	1.3 (0.81–1.97)	0.8 (0.49–1.26)	1.1 (0.59–2.16)
Epidemiologically definedb asthma (Epi-asthma)	0.7 (0.33–1.65)	1.5 (0.97–2.43)*	0.8 (0.50–1.35)	0.6 (0.31–1.29)
Wheeze in the last 4 weeks	1.0 (0.47–2.16)	1.0 (0.64–1.66)	1.0 (0.61–1.57)	0.6 (0.30–1.21)
Shortness of breath in the last 4 weeks	2.0 (0.99–4.13)*	1.1 (0.71–1.69)	0.8 (0.52–1.27)	0.5 (0.28–1.06)*
Chest tightness in the last 4 weeks	1.4 (0.55–3.67)	1.2 (0.66–2.06)	0.8 (0.43–1.34)	0.7 (0.34–1.62)
Attack of cough	0.7 (0.32–1.54)	1.3 (0.83–2.08)	0.9 (0.58–1.50)	0.9 (0.49–1.83)
Epi-asthma or airway hyper-responsivenessc	0.5 (0.25–1.13)	1.3 (0.81–1.94)	0.9 (0.56–1.34)	0.6 (0.29–1.09)*

^aAsthma-like symptoms included wheeze, attack of shortness of breath, chest tightness, attack of cough, or awakened by breathing difficulty.

^bEpidemiologically defined asthma included occupants who reported three or more asthma-like symptoms in the last 4 weeks or physician-diagnosed current asthma.

^cNine more participants with airway hyper-responsiveness but who did not meet definition of epidemiologically defined asthma were added to the asthma outcome variable.

^**P-value ≤0.05;

^*0.05 < P-value <0.1.