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Published on: November 4, 2010
Smoking and asthma in adults
R Piipari1, J J K Jaakkola, N Jaakkola
1Finnish Institute of Occupational, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland.
Abstract:
Studies on the effect of smoking on adulthood asthma have provided contradictory results. The current authors conducted a population-based incident case-control study to assess the effects of current and past smoking on the development of asthma in adults. During a 2.5 yr study period, all new asthma cases clinically diagnosed (n=521) and randomly selected controls (n=932) from a geographically defined district in southern Finland were recruited. The risk of developing asthma was significantly higher among current smokers with an adjusted odds ratio (OR) of 1.33 (95% confidence interval 1.00-1.77) and among ex-smokers with an adjusted OR 1.49 (1.12-1.97) compared with never-smokers. Among current smokers, the risk increased up to 14 cigarettes x day(-1), and a similar trend was observed in relation to cumulative smoking. In conclusion, the current results support the hypothesis that smoking causes asthma in adulthood.
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