Comparison of a Barcode-Based Smartphone Application to a Questionnaire to Assess the Use of Cleaning Products at Home and Their Association with Asthma Symptoms

Abstract

Household disinfectant and cleaning products (HDCPs) assessment is challenging in epidemiological research. We hypothesized that a newly-developed smartphone application was more objective than questionnaires in assessing HDCPs. Therefore, we aimed to compare both methods, in terms of exposure assessments and respiratory health effects estimates. The women of the SEPAGES birth cohort completed repeated validated questionnaires on HDCPs and respiratory health and used an application to report HDCPs and scan products barcodes, subsequently linked with an ingredients database. Agreements between the two methods were assessed by Kappa coefficients. Logistic regression models estimated associations of HDCP with asthma symptom score. The 101 participants (18 with asthma symptom score ≥1) scanned 617 different products (580 with available ingredients list). Slight to fair agreements for sprays, bleach and scented HDCP were observed (Kappa: 0.35, 0.25, 0.11, respectively). Strength of the associations between HDCP and asthma symptom score varied between both methods but all odds ratios (OR) were greater than one. The number of scanned products used weekly was significantly associated with the asthma symptom score (adjusted-OR [CI 95%]: 1.15 [1.00–1.32]). This study shows the importance of using novel tools in epidemiological research to objectively assess HDCP and therefore reduce exposure measurement errors.

Household use of green and homemade cleaning products, wipe application mode, and asthma among French adults from the CONSTANCES cohort

“…All analyses were adjusted for gender, age (continuous), smoking status (never smoker, ex-smoker, current smoker), Body Mass Index (BMI; <24.9, 25-29.9, >30 kg/m 2 ), and educational level (<high school diploma, high school to 1-level university, 2-level university to 4-level university, ≥5-level university). As associations of household exposure to irritants [9][10][11][12][13] and sprays 9,14,16,18 with asthma were previously observed in the literature, we conducted a sensitivity analysis to examine whether the potential associations observed for newly studied products (scented products, disinfecting wipes, green and homemade products) reflect the coexposure to irritants and/or sprays. For this analysis, we defined a three-class variable (reference, exposed to a given product without being coexposed to irritants and sprays, coexposed to irritants and/or sprays for a given product).…”

“…Most studies so far have considered the potential impact of the personal use of cleaning products containing irritant agents [9][10][11][12][13] or applied in a spray form. 9,11,[13][14][15][16][17][18] Personal use of these two categories of cleaning products at home has been shown to be associated with the development, 13,18 clinical expression, [10][11][12]14,16 and poor control of asthma. 9,16 The clinical expression of asthma was mainly studied though the evaluation of current asthma 10,12,14,16 and the asthma symptom score.…”

Association between household cleaning product profiles evaluated by the Ménag’Score® index and asthma symptoms among women from the SEPAGES cohort

“…Disinfectants and cleaning products (DCP) have been consistently observed to have deleterious effects on asthma in adults either at work (Weinmann et al 2019;Rosenman et al 2020) or at home (Zock et al 2007;Le Moual et al 2012Bédard et al 2014;Matulonga et al 2016;Weinmann et al 2017;Lemire et al 2020Lemire et al , 2021Dumas et al 2021). DCP are complex mixtures of ingredients, and their composition varies according to their forms (sprays, liquids, foams) and their purposes (multipurpose cleaning, kitchen surfaces, bathroom).…”

“…In order to assess the joint effect of the use of multiple HDCP, some of them used statistical methods to identify exposure household cleaning patterns from questionnaire data (Le Moual et al 2012;Bédard et al 2014;Weinmann et al 2017;Dumas et al 2021). However, most participants do not know the specific compounds of their consumer products which may affect health risk estimates (Delclos et al 2009;Lemire et al 2021). To limit the impact of participants knowledge on the assessment of HDCP use, identifying products by the use of HDCP barcodes was suggested (Quinot et al 2018;Lemire et al 2021).…”

“…However, most participants do not know the specific compounds of their consumer products which may affect health risk estimates (Delclos et al 2009;Lemire et al 2021). To limit the impact of participants knowledge on the assessment of HDCP use, identifying products by the use of HDCP barcodes was suggested (Quinot et al 2018;Lemire et al 2021).…”