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MedWire News: Smoking is associated with increased severity of new-onset asthma in allergic adults [link widoczny dla zalogowanych], research shows.
Writing in the journal Respiratory Research [link widoczny dla zalogowanych], Riccardo Polosa (University of Catania, Italy) and colleagues observe: "Although factors such as gender, atopy, duration of asthma [link widoczny dla zalogowanych], bronchial hyperresponsiveness, and frequent asthma exacerbations appear to be important determinants of the severe asthma phenotype [link widoczny dla zalogowanych], the association between common modifiable risk factors such as cigarette smoking and asthma severity has received surprisingly little attention."
For the current study, the researchers examined the influence of smoking on the severity of new-onset asthma among 371 adults with allergic rhinitis who were followed up for 10 years.
Of the 152 patients who developed asthma during follow up [link widoczny dla zalogowanych], 74 (48.7%) were current smokers, 17 (11.2%) were former smokers, and 61 (40.1%) had never smoked.
Asthma severity among these patients was calculated according to Global Initiative for Asthma criteria and defined as intermittent [link widoczny dla zalogowanych], mild persistent [link widoczny dla zalogowanych], moderate persistent [link widoczny dla zalogowanych], or severe persistent asthma. For the purposes of this study [link widoczny dla zalogowanych], patients with moderate persistent or severe persistent asthma were defined as having severe asthma.
Univariate analysis indicated that current and former smokers had a greater risk for severe new-onset asthma than those who had never smoked, at an odds ratio of 2.10 [link widoczny dla zalogowanych], but this became non-significant in multivariate analysis that adjusted for age [link widoczny dla zalogowanych], gender, family history of atopy [link widoczny dla zalogowanych], and other factors.
However, pack years of smoking among patients who developed asthma were significantly related to disease severity in multivariate analysis. Indeed, patients with 1-10 [link widoczny dla zalogowanych], 11-20 [link widoczny dla zalogowanych], and more than 20 pack-years of smoking were a respective 1.47 [link widoczny dla zalogowanych], 2.85, and 5.59 times more likely to develop severe asthma than those who had never smoked.