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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, Riccardo Polosa (University of Catania, Italy) and colleagues observe: "Although factors such as gender, atopy, duration of asthma, 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 [link widoczny dla zalogowanych], 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 [link widoczny dla zalogowanych], 17 (11.2%) were former smokers [link widoczny dla zalogowanych], 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, 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, 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 [link widoczny dla zalogowanych], 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, and more than 20 pack-years of smoking were a respective 1.47 [link widoczny dla zalogowanych], 2.85 [link widoczny dla zalogowanych], and 5.59 times more likely to develop severe asthma than those who had never smoked.