PT - JOURNAL ARTICLE AU - Ane Johannessen AU - Roberto de Marco AU - Trude Skorge AU - Marie Waatevik AU - Øistein Svanes AU - Francisco Real AU - Bertil Forsberg AU - Jakob Bønløkke AU - Vivi Schlünssen AU - Torben Sigsgaard AU - Thorarinn Gislason AU - Kjell Torén AU - Hans Orru AU - Ernst Omenaas AU - Cecilie Svanes AU - Dan Norbäck AU - Lars Modig AU - Christer Janson TI - Self-reported traffic air pollution and respiratory symptoms among never-smokers and ever-smokers in a general population DP - 2014 Sep 01 TA - European Respiratory Journal PG - P1950 VI - 44 IP - Suppl 58 4099 - http://erj.ersjournals.com/content/44/Suppl_58/P1950.short 4100 - http://erj.ersjournals.com/content/44/Suppl_58/P1950.full SO - Eur Respir J2014 Sep 01; 44 AB - Background: Traffic air pollution is a known risk factor for respiratory symptoms. If associations between air pollution and respiratory symptoms differ between never-smokers and ever-smokers is so far not known.Aims: To examine prevalence of respiratory symptoms and associations with self-reported traffic air pollution exposure in never-smokers and ever-smokers in a large general population.Methods: As part of the Respiratory Health in Northern Europe study (RHINE III), 12860 subjects 38-65 yrs old answered questionnaires on exposures and symptoms in 2010-12. We estimated prevalence of wheeze, chest tightness, productive cough and long term cough, and calculated relative risks (RR) with 95% confidence intervals (CI) for self-reported traffic air pollution exposure (defined as bedroom near busy road). Analyses were stratified by smoking status and adjusted for age, sex, education and study centre.Results: Overall prevalence of asthmatic symptoms (wheeze and chest tightness) and COPD symptoms (productive cough and longterm cough) were 19%, 11%, 16% and 16%, respectively. In multivariate analyses, traffic air pollution was associated with all four symptoms in never-smokers: RR 1.32 (95%CI 1.1,1.6) for wheeze, RR 1.49 (1.2,1.9) for chest tightness, 1.21 (1.0,1.5) for productive cough and 1.24 (1.0, 1.5) for longterm cough. In ever-smokers, RR were only significant for the asthmatic symptoms wheeze (RR 1.14 (1.0,1.3)) and chest tightness (RR 1.26 (1.1, 1.5)).Conclusions: Self-reported traffic air pollution exposure is associated with asthmatic symptoms in both never-smokers and ever-smokers, but with COPD symptoms only in never-smokers.