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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2018 Jan 1.
Published in final edited form as: Indoor Air. 2016 Jan 21;27(1):24–33. doi: 10.1111/ina.12278

Table 4.

Odds ratios [per one composite score increase in exposure] of granulomatous disease (GD)- or asthma-like symptomsa, or epidemiologically defined asthma for microbial measurements in heat pump drain tube from single environmental variable models adjusted for age, gender, smoking status (non-smoker/ever smoker), and building tenure

Health outcomes Microbial measurements, odds ratio (95% confidence interval)
Total culturable bacteria Endotoxin
Two or more GD-like symptoms in the last 4 weeks 0.8 (0.65–1.01)* 0.8 (0.67–0.98)**
 Shortness of breath on exertion 0.9 (0.78–1.03) 0.9 (0.79–1.04)
 Fever and chills 0.9 (0.72–1.19) 0.8 (0.64–1.12)
 Flu-like achiness 0.9 (0.78–1.02) 0.9 (0.76–0.99)**
Epidemiologically definedb asthma 0.8 (0.71–1.00)** 0.8 (0.67–0.96)**
 Wheeze in the last 4 weeks 0.9 (0.81–1.07) 0.9 (0.76–1.01)*
 Shortness of breath in the last 4 weeks 0.9 (0.77–1.03) 0.9 (0.80–1.05)
 Chest tightness in the last 4 weeks 1.0 (0.81–1.13) 0.9 (0.72–1.01)*
 Attack of cough 1.0 (0.87–1.13) 0.9 (0.79–1.03)
Epidemiologically defined asthmab or airway hyper-responsivenessc 0.8 (0.72–0.96)** 0.8 (0.72–0.95)**
a

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

b

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

c

Nine 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.