Respiratory symptoms, asthma attributed to smoking habits
Respiratory symptoms commonly observed in bronchitis decreased among adults in northern Sweden and paralleled a 10-year decline in smoking, while physician-diagnosed asthma prevalence increased, according to recent study data.
“The hypothesis that the observed increase in asthma reflects a ‘true’ increase in asthma prevalence has to be confirmed by clinical studies,” Helena Backman, BSc, from the department of research and development at the Norrbotten County Council in Luleå, Sweden, and colleagues wrote. “Additionally, up to one-fourth of the respiratory symptom prevalence in the population was attributable to smoking.”
Data from two large-scale cross-sectional surveys administered to adults in 1996 and 2006 were analyzed by Backman and colleagues. Patients were asked about their respiratory symptoms and diseases, smoking and other determinants of disease, including physician-diagnosed asthma, longstanding cough, wheeze, or a family history of asthma.
Data indicated that the prevalence of most respiratory symptoms decreased significantly from 1996 to 2006.
Researchers reported that longstanding cough decreased from 12.4% to 10.1% (OR=0.82; 95% CI, 0.74-0.92); sputum production from 19% to 15% (OR=0.8; 95% CI, 0.72-0.87); chronic productive cough from 7.3% to 6.2% (OR=0.85; 95% CI, 0.74-0.98); and recurrent wheeze from 13.4% to 12%. Researchers said any wheeze and asthmatic wheeze, however, remained the same.
In addition, these findings were parallel to a decrease in smoking from 27.4% to 19.1%. Yet, physician-diagnosed asthma appeared to increase from 9.4% to 11.6%.
“PAR [population attributable risk of smoking] was not significant for physician-diagnosed asthma. In both surveys, adjusted PAR tended to be higher than PAR. Adjusted PAR was highest for recurrent wheeze (25.5% in 1996, 20.6% in 2006), and ranged from 10.9% to 18% for the bronchitis symptoms,” researchers wrote.
Disclosure: The researchers report no relevant financial disclosures.