Recently, a locus centred on rs9273349 in the HLA-DQ region emerged from genome-wide association studies of adult-onset asthma. We aimed to further investigate the role of human leukocyte antigen (HLA) class II in adult-onset asthma and a possible interaction with occupational exposures. We imputed classical HLA-II alleles from 7579 single-nucleotide polymorphisms in 6025 subjects (1202 with ad...

Asthma is an important cause of chronic morbidity and a crucial health problem among children and adults worldwide, with high prevalence rates particularly in many developed countries. 2 Increasing morbidity, hospital admission rates, use of medical services, drug use and, in some countries, increasing mortality rates have been reported. However, controversy still exists regarding the epidemiol...

BACKGROUND Fish processing is a common economic activity in Southern Africa. The aim of this study was to determine the prevalence and host determinants of allergic symptoms, allergic sensitization, bronchial hyper-responsiveness and asthma among workers processing saltwater fish. METHODS A cross-sectional study was conducted on 594 currently employed workers in two processing plants involved...

BACKGROUND The fractional concentration of nitric oxide in exhaled air (FENO) is used as a biomarker of eosinophilic airway inflammation. FENO is increased in patients with asthma. The relationship between subjective asthma symptoms and airway inflammation is an important issue. We expected that the subjective asthma symptoms in women might be different from those in men. Therefore, we investig...

BACKGROUND The increase in asthma prevalence until 1990 has been well described. Thereafter, time trends are poorly known, due to the low number of high quality studies. The preferred method for studying time trends in prevalence is repeated surveys of similar populations. This study aimed to compare the prevalence of asthma symptoms and their major determinants, rhinitis and smoking, in Swedis...

BACKGROUND Little is known about the influencing potential of specific characteristics on lung function in different populations. The aim of this analysis was to determine whether lung function determinants differ between subpopulations within Germany and whether prediction equations developed for one subpopulation are also adequate for another subpopulation. METHODS Within three studies (KOR...

BACKGROUND Transient receptor potential (TRP) vanilloid and ankyrin cation channels are activated by various noxious chemicals and may play an important role in the pathogenesis of cough. The aim was to study the influence of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in TRP genes and irritant exposures on cough. METHODS Nocturnal, usual, and chronic cough, smoking, and job history were obtained ...

BACKGROUND Errors in address geocodes may affect estimates of the effects of air pollution on health. OBJECTIVE We investigated the impact of four geocoding techniques on the association between urban air pollution estimated with a fine-scale (10 m × 10 m) dispersion model and lung function in adults. METHODS We measured forced expiratory volume in 1 sec (FEV1) and forced vital capacity (FV...

BACKGROUND The association between impaired lung function and cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk factors has been shown in adults. However, there is little evidence of such an association in young adults, particularly from South America, where the burden of CVD and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is as high as that observed in more developed countries. We therefore investigated the ...