Abstract
A higher incidence of asthma is reported in women compared with men, but evidence in later adulthood is limited. We aimed to determine the 20-year cumulative incidence of adult asthma in Switzerland and its relation to sex, taking into account age and allergic sensitisation.
We assessed incidence of self-report of doctor-diagnosed asthma between 1991/1992 and 2010/2011 in 5128 subjects without asthma, aged 18–60 years at baseline. The age-related probability of asthma onset was analysed by logistic regression adjusting for potential confounders and stratified by sex and allergic sensitisation at baseline.
Over 20 years, 128 (5.1%) men and 198 (7.5%) women newly reported doctor-diagnosed asthma. The adjusted odds ratio for female sex was 1.99 (95% CI 1.54–2.57) overall, 3.21 (95% CI 2.12–4.85) among nonsensitised subjects, and 1.43 (95% CI 1.02–2.02) in sensitised subjects. The probability of asthma onset decreased with increasing baseline age in women but not in men. The higher probability of new asthma in sensitised compared with nonsensitised men was unrelated to age, whereas in women it decreased with age.
Asthma incidence was higher in women than in men but decreased with increasing age. The female predominance was considerably stronger in nonsensitised adults compared with those with allergic sensitisation.
Abstract
Female predominance in new-onset adult asthma decreased with age and was more pronounced in nonsensitised subjects http://ow.ly/OaXWA
Footnotes
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Conflict of interest: Disclosures can be found alongside the online version of this article at erj.ersjournals.com
Support statement: This study received research support from the Swiss National Science Foundation (grants 33CS30-148470/1, 33CSCO-134276/1, 33CSCO-108796, 3247BO-104283, 3247BO-104288, 3247BO-104284, 3247-065896, 3100-059302, 3200-052720, 3200-042532, 4026-028099, PMPDP3_129021/1, PMPDP3_141671/1 and PDFMP3_137180), the Federal Office for the Environment, the Federal Office of Public Health, the Federal Office of Roads and Transport, the canton governments of Aargau, Basel-Stadt, Basel-Land, Geneva, Luzern, Ticino, Valais and Zürich, the Swiss Lung League, the canton Lung Leagues of Basel-Stadt, Basel-Land, Geneva, Ticino, Valais, Graubünden and Zürich, Stiftung ehemals Bündner Heilstätten, SUVA, Freiwillige Akademische Gesellschaft, UBS Wealth Foundation, Talecris Biotherapeutics GmbH, Abbott Diagnostics, European Commission 018996 (GABRIEL) and the Wellcome Trust (WT 084703MA). Funding information for this article has been deposited with FundRef.
- Received December 12, 2014.
- Accepted May 14, 2015.
- Copyright ©ERS 2015