Household use of cleaning products may negatively impact asthma control, but only two studies have examined this issue and none considered those in wipe form, scented and green products, which are increasingly used during home cleaning. 

We aimed to investigate the associations of household use of cleaning products, including disinfecting wipes, scented products and green products, with poorly controlled asthma in the French NutriNet-Santé cohort.

Using a standardized questionnaire, we assessed asthma control by the asthma control test (ACT<20: poorly, 25>ACT?20: partly, ACT=25: perfectly controlled, reference: never asthma) and the weekly use of household cleaning products in 2018. Cross-sectional associations of household cleaning products with asthma control, adjusted for gender, age, smoking status, body mass index and educational level were assessed by multinomial logistic regressions.

Our analyses were performed on 37,043 adults (mean age: 47 years, 75% women, 66% with a weekly use of at least one cleaning product). Weekly use of cleaning products was associated with partly and poorly controlled asthma. In particular, an almost daily use of irritants (OR=2.87[2.00-4.13]), scented products (OR=2.08[1.49-2.89]), green products (OR=2.44[1.71-3.48]), as well as sprays (OR=2.78[2.02-3.84]) and disinfecting wipes (OR=3.68[2.40-5.64]) was strongly associated with poorly controlled asthma. When not co-used with irritants/sprays, associations remained significant for both disinfecting wipes and green products.

Weekly household use of cleaning products, including green ones or those used in wipe form, was associated with poorly controlled asthma and should be considered during medical consultations in order to improve asthma control.