Prevalence of asthma symptoms and associated factors in adolescents and adults in southern Brazil: A Global Asthma Network Phase I study

Sociodemographic factors, health behavior, parental or workplace smoking, and adult asthma risk in the United States

BACKGROUND

Although several studies have found a link between parental or workplace smoking and asthma risk, particularly in children and adolescents, only a few studies have found this link in adults.

OBJECTIVE

This study aimed to investigate the associations of sociodemographic factors, health behavior, and parental or workplace smoking with adult asthma risk in the United States (US).

METHODS

A secondary data analysis on 874 participants aged 25-45 was performed using data from the 2011-2014 National Survey of Midlife Development in the United States Refresher. Participants were divided into smokers and nonsmokers. Participants were further divided into groups A (a father or mother with a smoking history) and B (others in the house or colleagues in the workplace who had a smoking history).

RESULTS

Findings from the FREQ procedure revealed that sociodemographic (female, black, school or college education, unmarried/divorced, and employed) and lifestyle (no alcohol intake, physically inactive, and obese) and clinical (diabetes and joint disease) factors were significantly associated with one- or more-fold odds of asthma among adult smokers than nonsmokers. Adult smokers in group A, particularly females, those with a high school or college education, physically inactive, and overweight or obese, had a higher risk of asthma than those in group B.

CONCLUSION

Adult smokers' risk of developing asthma is increased in the US by having smoked with their parents, being a woman, being black, having a school or college education, being single or divorced, working, not drinking alcohol, being physically inactive, being obese, having diabetes, and having a joint disease.

Prevalence, Management, and Risk Factors of Asthma Among School-Age Children in Yogyakarta, Indonesia

Purpose

Childhood asthma in developing countries has been increasing, but underdiagnosed and undertreated. We reported prevalence, management, and risk factors of asthma among school-age children in Yogyakarta, Indonesia.

Patients and Methods

We recruited children aged 6-7 years and 13-14 years attending schools in all districts in Yogyakarta, Indonesia. The schools were randomly selected via cluster random sampling. We used the Indonesian version of the Global Asthma Network (GAN) questionnaire, and the methodology employed by this study was in accordance with the GAN's protocol.

Results

A total of 2106 children aged 6-7 years and 3142 adolescents aged 13-14 years were eligible for analysis. The prevalence of current wheeze in children and adolescents was similar, which was 4.6%. Inhalation therapy was reported in <30% of those with asthma. Risk factors for current wheeze in children were wheezing in infancy period, ever had pneumonia, the house was passed by trucks every day, and fast-food consumption in the previous 12 months; whereas exclusive breastfeeding for more than 6 months decreased the risk of current wheeze. In adolescence, obesity, consumption of fast food once or twice a week, and paracetamol in the previous 12 months increased the risk of current wheeze.

Conclusion

The prevalence of current wheeze in children and adolescents in Indonesia was quite low. The use of inhalation therapy was limited. Respiratory problems during infancy, environmental, and nutritional factors play a role in the development of asthma.

Assessing the impact of air pollutants on clinical visits for childhood allergic respiratory disease induced by house dust mite in Shanghai, China

Background

The prevalence of allergic respiratory disease (ARD) is increasing worldwide during the last few decades, causing a great disease burden especially for children. Air pollution has been increasingly considered as a potential contributor to this trend, but its role in ARD induced by house dust mite (HDM-ARD) remains unclear, especially in time-series study.

Methods

A positive reporting of respiratory allergy to named allergens was included by serum specific IgE testing. A time series Quasi-Poisson regression with distributed lag non-linear model, combined with generalized linear model was used to examine the effects of air pollutants on ARD, HDM-ARD and ARD induced by non-house dust mite (NHDM-ARD).

Results

A total of 16,249 cases of ARD, including 8,719 HDM-ARD and 8,070 NHDM-ARD from 1 Jan 2013 to 31 Dec 2017 were involved in this study. Air pollutants were significantly associated with clinical visits for childhood ARD and HDM-ARD. Exposure to higher O₃ and interquartile range (IQR) increment in O₃ (40.6 µg/m³) increased the risks of clinical visits for childhood HDM-ARD (RR_lag0-5 for the 95th percentile of O₃: 1.26, 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.03, 1.55; RR_lag0-5 for IQR increment (40.6 µg/m³): 1.09, 95% CI: 1.01, 1.17) and ARD (RR_lag0-5 for the 95th percentile of O₃: 1.19, 95% CI: 1.03, 1.38; RR_lag0-5 for IQR increment (40.6 µg/m³): 1.06, 95% CI: 1.01, 1.12). In addition, higher O₃ was associated with increased RR of boys with ARD (RR_lag0-5 for the 95th percentile: 1.26, 95% CI: 1.05, 1.51; RR_lag0-5 for IQR increment (40.6 µg/m³): 1.09, 95% CI: 1.02, 1.16) and HDM-ARD (RR_lag0-5 for the 95th percentile: 1.36, 95% CI: 1.06, 1.75; RR_lag0-5 for IQR increment (40.6 µg/m³): 1.11, 95% CI: 1.02, 1.22), but not in girls.

Conclusions

Exposure to O₃ appeared to be a trigger of clinical visits for childhood ARD, especially for HDM-ARD and boys. These findings provide novel evidence on the impact of air pollution on HDM-ARD, which may have significant implications for designing effective intervention programs to control and prevent childhood ARD, especially HDM-ARD, in China and other similar developing countries.

Supplementary Information

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12931-022-01967-1.