Characteristics of participants in the European Community Respiratory Health Survey II(1999–2001)#
| Individual variables | Subjects | Range by centre % |
| Sex | ||
| Male | 3412 (49.0) | 41.3–54.4 |
| Female | 3553 (51.0) | 45.6–58.7 |
| Age yrs | 43.0±7.1 | 39.2–46.7 |
| BMI kg·m−2 | ||
| <20 | 390 (5.7) | 1.1–12.3 |
| ≥20–<25 | 3096 (45.6) | 31.3–60.9 |
| ≥25–<30 | 2429 (35.8) | 25.8–45.3 |
| ≥30 | 879 (12.9) | 3.1–29.8 |
| Family history of asthma | 808 (11.6) | 5.7–19.2 |
| Smoking status | ||
| Never-smoker | 2927 (42.0) | 30.2–60.7 |
| Former smoker | 1945 (27.9) | 6.5–40.7 |
| Current smoker | 2027 (29.1) | 11.9–48.2 |
| Exposure to ETS | 2637 (38.0) | 18.9–78.2 |
| Siblings | ||
| 0 | 690 (9.9) | 0.9–21.3 |
| 1 | 2121 (30.5) | 12.3–48.7 |
| ≥2 | 4134 (59.5) | 31.4–79.8 |
| Respiratory infections before 5 yrs of age | 689 (9.9) | 2.2–16.3 |
| Rhinitis | 2051 (29.5) | 11.1–43.0 |
| High occupational exposure to biological or mineral dust, gas or fumes | 991 (14.6) | 5.0–27.6 |
| Mould or mildew in home in previous 12 months | 1166 (16.7) | 2.2–40.7 |
| Outcome variables | ||
| Asthma | 725 (10.4) | 4.9–15.9 |
| With atopy | 372 (5.3) | 1.3–11.8 |
| Without atopy | 353 (5.1) | 2.2–9.7 |
| Atopy without asthma | 1646 (23.6) | 13.4–33.9 |
| No asthma nor atopy | 4594 (66.0) | 52.6–81.7 |
| Chronic bronchitis¶ | 247 (3.0) | 0.0–8.5 |
| Asthma score | 0.66±1.2 | 0.36–0.96 |
| Socioeconomic status measures | ||
| Occupational class+ | ||
| I | 2096 (30.1) | 15.1–49.7 |
| II | 1246 (17.9) | 7.5–28.2 |
| III | 1791 (25.7) | 15.5–40.2 |
| IV | 695 (10.0) | 2.2–18.5 |
| V | 655 (9.4) | 2.8–19.0 |
| VI | 482 (6.9) | 1.3–17.5 |
| Educational level (country-specific tertiles) | ||
| High | 1883 (28.4) | 17.8–37.3 |
| Medium | 2101 (31.7) | 10.9–48.0 |
| Low | 2650 (39.9) | 29.5–63.8 |
Data are presented as n (%) or mean±sd, unless otherwise stated. BMI: body mass index; ETS: environmental tobacco smoke. #: only subjects with serum immunoglobulin E measurements were included (n = 6,965); ¶: chronic bronchitis category (n = 7,915); +: I for managers and professionals, II for technicians and associate professionals, III for other nonmanual workers, IV for skilled manual workers, V for semi-skilled/unskilled manual workers and VI for unclassifiable/unknown.