Kingston Allergy Birth Cohort (KABC); Exposome Characteristics and Parentally- Reported Respiratory Outcomes to Age 2

Background: The Kingston Allergy Birth Cohort (KABC) is a prenatally-recruited cohort initiated to study the developmental origins of allergic disease. Kingston General Hospital was chosen for recruitment, as it serves a population with notable diversity in exposures relevant to the emerging concept of the exposome. Objective: Establish a profile of the KABC cohort using the exposome framework, and examine parentally-reported respiratory symptoms to age 2. Methods: Data on phase 1 of the cohort (n=560 deliveries) were compiled and multivariate Cox proportional hazard models were used to determine associations with respiratory symptoms. Results: The KABC exhibits diversity within the three exposome domains; “general external” (SES, rural/urban residency), “specific external” (cigarette smoke, breastfeeding, mold/dampness), and “internal” (respiratory health, gestational age). We demonstrate relationships between exposome domains, as residential locale and SES significantly affected characteristics of the home environment. Significant associations emerged between parental reports of wheeze/cough without a cold and exposures within all three domains, including SES, 70 breastfeeding, gestational age, prenatal cigarette smoke exposure, and mold/dampness. Conclusions: The KABC is a unique cohort with diversity that can be leveraged for exposomics- based studies, and a notably high prevalence of prenatal smoke exposure. This study demonstrated the impacts of all three domains of the exposome on the respiratory health of KABC children. Ongoing studies using phase 1 of the KABC are further exploring the internal exposome through allergy skin testing and epigenetic analyses, and the specific external domain through in-home environmental analyses, air pollution modeling and ultimately the potential convergence of the two.MLN; J.A. Stewart Award, Department of Medicine, Queen’s University, Ontario Ministry of Research & Innovation Award, and AllerGen N.C.E. Canadian Allergy and Immune Diseases Advanced Training Initiative (CAIDATI). The study was supported by an Ontario Thoracic Society & Canadian Lung Association Grant-in aid of Research, an Allergy/Asthma Information Association (AAIA) and Canadian Allergy, Asthma & Immunology Foundation (CAAIF) Award for Ontario Research in Food Allergy, and an American College of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology (ACAAI) Young Faculty Support Award