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Background: Chronic systemic inflammation accelerates early vascular ageing. Atopic sensitization and allergic diseases may involve increased inflammatory activity. This study aimed to assess whether atopic sensitization and allergic diseases were associated with altered vascular biomarkers in Norwegian adolescents. Methods: Distensibility coefficient of the common carotid arteries, carotid intima-media thickness and atopic sensitization (serum total and specific IgEs) were assessed in 95 Norwegian adolescents, who participated in the RHINESSA generation study. Symptoms of allergic disease were assessed by an interviewer-led questionnaire. Results: Atopic sensitization was found in 33 (34.7%) of the adolescents. Symptomatic allergic disease was found in 11 (33.3%) of those with atopic sensitization. Distensibility coefficient of the common carotid arteries appeared to be lower in participants with atopic sensitization than in those without (46.99±8.07*10−3/kPa versus 51.50±11.46*10−3/kPa; p>0.05), while carotid intima-media thickness did not differ between these groups (0.50±0.04mm versus 0.50±0.04mm; p>0.05). Crude, as well as age- and sex-adjusted multiple regression, revealed no significant association, neither of atopic sensitization nor of allergic disease, with distensibility coefficient of the common carotid arteries and carotid intima-media thickness. Conclusions: Our results do not support the assumption of an adverse impact of atopic sensitization and/or allergic disease on distensibility coefficient of the common carotid arteries and carotid intima-media thickness in Norwegian adolescents. Further research is necessary to study whether the clinical severity of allergic diseases might be more important than the status of allergic disease or atopic sensitization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The term Asthma and COPD Overlap (ACO) describes a condition where asthma and COPD overlap. We aimed to investigate associations between ACO and insomnia and respiratory symptoms, and to investigate the prevalence of ACO and the characteristics of subjects with ACO in two Northern European population studies. Methods: The study comprised 25 429 subjects aged ≥ 40 years who participated in one of two Northern European general population surveys. Both surveys included questions on asthma, COPD, respiratory and sleep-related symptoms, including difficulty initiating sleep, difficulty maintaining sleep, early-morning awakening, and excessive daytime sleepiness. ACO was defined as having both self-reported asthma and COPD. Results: The prevalence of ACO was 1.0%. The group with ACO had a higher prevalence of both insomnia and respiratory symptoms than subjects with only asthma or COPD. Having ACO was independently associated with a 2–3 times higher probability of having sleep-related symptoms as compared with the group without asthma or COPD, after adjustment for age, sex, BMI, smoking history and educational level (adjusted odds ratio 2.14–3.36, 95% CI). Conclusion: Subjects with ACO have a high prevalence of insomnia and respiratory symptoms. To our knowledge, this is the first study to assess the association between sleep-related symptoms and ACO. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rationale and objectives: The oral cavity is united with the airways, and thus poor oral health may affect respiratory health. However, data on the interaction of periodontal and respiratory health is limited. We aimed to evaluate whether periodontal health status, assessed by the Community Periodontal Index (CPI), was related to lung function among young and middle-aged adults in two Norwegian cohorts. Methods: Periodontal health status and lung function were measured among 656 participants in the Norwegian part of the European Community Respiratory Health Survey (ECHRS III) and the RHINESSA offspring study. Each participant was given a CPI-index from 0 to 4 where higher values reflect poorer periodontal status. The association between CPI and lung function was estimated with linear regression adjusting for age, gender, smoking, body mass index, exercise, education, use of antibiotics, inhaled medication and corrected for clustering within families. Main results: Participants with CPI 3–4 had significantly lower FEV1/FVC ratio compared to participants with CPI 0, b (95% CI) = -0.032 (-0.055, -0.009). Poorer periodontal health was associated with a significant decrease in the FEV1/FVC ratio with an adjusted regression coefficient for linear trend b (95% CI) = -0.009 (-0.015, -0.004) per unit increase in CPI. This negative association remained when excluding asthmatics and smokers (-0.014 (-0.022, -0,006)). Conclusions: Poorer periodontal health was associated with increasing airways obstruction in a relatively young, healthy population. The oral cavity is united with the airways and our findings indicate an opportunity to influence respiratory health by improving oral health. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Studies using mothers’ self-reported information on birth and pregnancy characteristics are common, but the validity of such data is uncertain. We evaluated questionnaire data from the RHINE III study on reproductive health provided by 715 mothers from Bergen, Norway, about their 1629 births between 1967 and 2010, using the Medical Birth Registry of Norway (MBRN) as gold standard. Validity of dichotomous variables (gender, preterm birth [<37 weeks’ gestation], postterm birth [>42 weeks’ gestation], induction of labour, forceps delivery, vacuum delivery, caesarean section, were assessed by sensitivity, specificity, positive and negative predictive values (PPV and NPV) and Cohen’s kappa. Paired t-test, Pearson’s correlation coefficient and Bland-Altman plots were used to validate birthweight, stratified by mother’s level of education, parity, birth year and child’s asthma status. Child’s gender and caesarean section showed high degree of validity (kappa = 0.99, sensitivity and specificity 100%). Instrumental delivery and extremely preterm birth showed good agreement with sensitivity 75–92%. Preterm birth and induction of labour showed moderate agreement. Post-term delivery was poorly reported. The validity appeared to be independent of recall time over 45 years, and of the child’s asthma status. Maternally reported birth and pregnancy information is feasible and cheap, showed high validity for important birth and pregnancy parameters, and showed similar risk-associations compared to registry data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: There is little knowledge about how oral and respiratory health is interrelated even though the mucosa of the oral cavity and airways constitutes a continuum and the exposures to these are partly similar. Aims: To investigate whether gum bleeding is related to asthma, respiratory symptoms and self-reported COPD. Methods: A postal questionnaire including questions about respiratory and oral health was sent to general population samples in seven Northern European centres. In 13,409 responders, gum bleeding when brushing teeth was reported always/often by 4% and sometimes by 20%. Logistic regressions accounted for age, smoking, educational level, centre and gender. Effects of BMI, cardio-metabolic diseases, early life factors, gastro-oesophageal reflux, dental hygiene, nasal congestion, and asthma medication were addressed. Results: Gum bleeding always/often was significantly associated with ≥3 asthma symptoms (OR 2.58, 95% CI 2.10–3.18), asthma (1.62 [1.23–2.14]) and self-reported COPD (2.02 [1.28–3.18]). There was a dose-response relationship between respiratory outcomes and gum bleeding frequency (≥3 symptoms: gum bleeding sometimes 1.42 [1.25–1.60], often/always 2.58 [2.10–3.18]), and there was no heterogeneity between centres (pheterogeneity = 0.49). None of the investigated risk factors explained the associations. The observed associations were significantly stronger among current smokers (pinteraction = 0.004). Conclusions: A consistent link between gum bleeding and obstructive airways disease was observed, not explained by common risk factors or metabolic factors. We speculate that oral pathogens might have unfavourable impact on the airways, and that the direct continuity of the mucosa of the oral cavity and the airways reflects a pathway that might provide novel opportunities for interventions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: It is well known that asthma prevalence has been increasing all over the world in the last decades. However, few data are available on temporal trends of incidence and remission of asthma. Objective: To evaluate the rates of asthma incidence and remission in Italy from 1940 to 2010. Methods: The subjects were randomly sampled from the general Italian population between 1991 and 2010 in the three population-based multicentre studies: ECRHS, ISAYA, and GEIRD. Individual information on the history of asthma (age at onset, age at the last attack, use of drugs for asthma control, co-presence of hay-fever) was collected on 35,495 subjects aged 20–84 and born between 1925–1989. Temporal changes in rates of asthma incidence and remission in relation to age, birth cohort and calendar period (APC) were modelled using Poisson regression and APC models. Results: The average yearly rate of asthma incidence was 2.6/1000 (3,297 new cases among 1,263,885 person-years). The incidence rates have been linearly increasing, with a percentage increase of +3.9% (95%CI: 3.1–4.5), from 1940 up to the year 1995, when the rates begun to level off. The stabilization of asthma incidence was mainly due to a decrease in the rates of atopic asthma after 1995, while non-atopic asthma has continued to increase. The overall rate of remission was 43.2/1000person-years, and it did not vary significantly across generations, but was associated with atopy, age at asthma onset and duration of the disease. Conclusions: After 50 years of a continuous upward trend, the rates of asthma incidence underwent a substantial stabilization in the late 90s. Despite remarkable improvements in the treatment of asthma, the rate of remission did not change significantly in the last seventy years. Some caveats are required in interpreting our results, given that our estimates are based on self-reported events that could be affected by the recall bias. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rationale: There is some evidence that maternal smoking increases susceptibility to personal smoking’s detrimental effects. One might question whether early life disadvantage might influence susceptibility to occupational exposure. Objectives: In this cross-sectional study we investigated respiratory symptoms, asthma and self-reported chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) as related to working as a cleaner in Northern European populations, and whether early life factors influenced susceptibility to occupational cleaning’s unhealthy effects. Methods: The RHINE III questionnaire study assessed occupational cleaning in 13,499 participants. Associations with respiratory symptoms, asthma and self-reported COPD were analysed with multiple logistic regressions, adjusting for sex, age, smoking, educational level, parent´s educational level, BMI and participating centre. Interaction of occupational cleaning with early life disadvantage (maternal smoking, severe respiratory infection <5 years, born during winter months, maternal age at birth >35 years) was investigated. Main Results: Among 2138 ever-cleaners the risks of wheeze (OR 1.4, 95% CI 1.3–1.6), adult-onset asthma (1.5 [1.2–1.8]) and self-reported COPD (1.7 [1.3–2.2]) were increased. The risk increased with years in occupational cleaning (adult-onset asthma: ≤1 year 0.9 [0.7–1.3]; 1–4 years 1.5 [1.1–2.0]; ≥4 years 1.6 [1.2–2.1]). The association of wheeze with cleaning activity ≥4 years was significantly stronger for those with early life disadvantage than in those without (1.8 [1.5–2.3] vs. 1.3 [0.96–1.8]; pinteraction 0.035). Conclusions: Occupational cleaners had increased risk of asthma and self-reported COPD. Respiratory symptom risk was particularly increased in persons with factors suggestive of early life disadvantage. We hypothesize that early life disadvantage may increase airway vulnerability to harmful exposure from cleaning agents later in life. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]