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Middle-aged men with asthma since youth: the impact of work on asthma
Irmeli Lindström1, Hille Suojalehto, Paula Pallasaho
1Control of Hypersensitivity Diseases, Finnish Institute of Occupational Health, Helsinki, Finland. irmeli.lindstrom@ttl.fi
Objectives:
To evaluate current occupational exposure and its associations with asthma control, exacerbations, and severity in middle-aged men with asthma from youth.
Methods:
We used the Finnish Defence Force registers, 1986 to 1990, to select conscripts with asthma to represent mild or moderate asthmatic group (asthma group 1; N = 505), men who were exempted from military service to represent relatively severe asthmatic group (asthma group 2; N = 393), and a control group without asthma (N = 1500). A questionnaire was sent out in 2009.
Results:
The current self-reported or expert-evaluated exposure to asthma-aggravating factors differed only slightly between the asthmatic groups and the controls. In asthma group 2, being a manual worker or self-employed (odds ratio, 4.5; 95% confidence interval, 1.2 to 16.3) significantly associated with asthma exacerbations.
Conclusions:
Current work may associate with the asthma outcome of middle-aged men with relatively severe asthma in their youth.
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