Table 1 Baseline characteristics of the children of the COPSAC2000 cohort, comparing the children who had nasopharyngeal swab samples successfully obtained and sequenced with those who did not

From: The airway microbiota of neonates colonized with asthma-associated pathogenic bacteria

Characteristic

N

Sample available, N = 285a

No sample available, N = 126a

p valueb

Sex

411

  

0.5

   Female

 

141 (49%)

67 (53%)

 

   Male

 

144 (51%)

59 (47%)

 

Ethnicity

411

  

0.8

   Northern European

 

276 (97%)

121 (96%)

 

   Other

 

9 (3.2%)

5 (4.0%)

 

Delivery mode

411

  

0.4

   Cesarean section

 

63 (22%)

23 (18%)

 

   Vaginal

 

222 (78%)

103 (82%)

 

Gestational age (weeks)

411

40.43 (39.29, 41.43)

40.29 (39.43, 41.71)

0.5

Birth weight (kg)

411

3.50 (3.20, 3.82)

3.55 (3.20, 3.80)

0.8

Birth length (cm)

411

52.00 (51.00, 54.00)

52.00 (51.00, 54.00)

0.9

Season of birth

411

  

0.00006

 Autumn

 

64 (22%)

55 (44%)

 

 Spring

 

70 (25%)

16 (13%)

 

 Summer

 

85 (30%)

26 (21%)

 

 Winter

 

66 (23%)

29 (23%)

 

Living environment

411

  

0.9

   Rural

 

147 (52%)

66 (52%)

 

   Urban

 

138 (48%)

60 (48%)

 

Older siblings, any

386

113 (42%)

38 (32%)

0.053

   Missing data

 

18

7

 

Furred pet at home

389

78 (29%)

37 (31%)

0.6

  Missing data

 

14

8

 

Maternal smoking at 1 month

354

39 (16%)

27 (26%)

0.027

   Missing data

 

36

21

 

Breastfeeding at 1 month

367

210 (82%)

93 (85%)

0.5

   Missing data

 

28

16

 

Social circumstances PCA score

382

−0.07 (−0.70, 0.60)

−0.15 (−0.81, 0.51)

0.3

   Missing data

 

20

9

 

Antibiotics during pregnancy

411

83 (29%)

42 (33%)

0.4

  1. an (%); median (interquartile range).
  2. bPearson’s Chi-squared; Fisher’s exact test; Wilcoxon rank-sum test. P values are two-sided and not adjusted for multiple comparisons.