Descriptive characteristics of the study population and exposure
variables
Over half of the children (55.2 %) were from families with high level
of parental education while only 2.4 % were from families with low
level of parental education (Table 1). This was the only systematic
difference between the analytic sample compared to the original LISA
Leipzig population where the above-mentioned numbers were 48 % and 5
%, respectively.
The highest prevalence of doctor diagnosed asthma (4.5 %) was observed
at 7 and at 11 years (Table 2). The highest prevalence of AR (12.2 %)
was observed at 11 years. 47.4 % children at 15 years were sensitized
to aeroallergens. The peak of sensitization to food allergens (16.5 %)
was reached at 10 years.
Descriptions of the exposure variable categories for all three buffer
sizes are provided in Table E2. Mean and standard deviations for
NO2 and summer ozone levels were 33.5±4.5
µg/m3 and 84.7±3.9 µg/m3,
respectively.