The objective of this cross-disciplinary project has been to find relationships between the indoor environment in the homes of 60 young asthmatics and their pattern of disease. The patients were selected by paediatric allergy specialists, who also made available the results of sensitisation tests and assessments of the severity of the patient's asthma.

Field measurements were made in 60 homes during the winter of 1990/91, covering moisture, temperature, ventilation, volatile organic compounds (VOC), formaldehyde, carbon dioxide, radon and particles. In addition bacteria, endotoxins and microfungi in dust were also measured, and information was obtained concerning the families' lifestyle and their houses.

The results show that ventilation air change rates per person were only about half of the aver­ age value for Swedish housing stock. Low ventilation tended to be linked to higher levels of various pollutants.

The results, based on about 160 different parameters, do not show any simple relationship between the parameters which tend to describe the patients' condition in general terms and their indoor environment. What were revealed, however, were several interesting significant relationships between individual physical and medical parameters. Many of the results could be suitable as starting points for continued research, while others indicate ways in which the indoor environment could be improved in order to reduce the risk of development of allergies.