No further increase of incidence of asthma: Incidence, remission and relapse of adult asthma in Sweden

Abstract

The current study with high participation rates concludes that the incidence of asthma among adults has been stable in Sweden for the past two decades. Remission was associated with mild disease at study start. Relapse in adults has rarely been reported previously and provide new insight in the course of asthma. Low remission and high relapse further support the view of asthma as a chronic disease; possibly representing fluctuations of the disease over time.

Prevalence of Chronic Nasal Symptoms in West Sweden: Risk Factors and Relation to Self-Reported Allergic Rhinitis and Lower Respiratory Symptoms

“…The questionnaire has been used in several studies in northern Europe [5,18,19] and contains questions about obstructive respiratory diseases, rhinitis, respiratory and nasal symptoms and possible determinants of disease, such as smoking habits and family history of allergic disease. Additional questions about smoking and occupational and environmental exposures were included as well as the Swedish version of the GA 2 LEN questionnaire [2].…”

Alarmingly high prevalence of smoking and symptoms of bronchitis in young women in Sweden: a population-based questionnaire study

“…The questions were based on the Swedish OLIN study questionnaire [12][13][14][15][16] which contains items about obstructive respiratory symptoms and diseases, smoking, and other possible determinants of disease. The questionnaire was developed mainly from the British Medical Research Council questionnaire and has been used in several large-scale studies in the Nordic and Baltic countries.…”

“…The questionnaire was developed mainly from the British Medical Research Council questionnaire and has been used in several large-scale studies in the Nordic and Baltic countries. [12][13][14][15][16] A comparison of the OLIN and Global Allergy and Asthma European Network (GA 2 LEN) questionnaires concludes that questions about bronchitis are more detailed in the OLIN questionnaire. 17 Questions on common asthma symptoms are similar or identical in the two questionnaires, and they yielded similar estimates of prevalence of respiratory symptoms and diseases in the same population.…”

“…1 In 2012, even higher figures were reported from the Stockholm high schools where 37% of 17-year-old girls and 29% of boys smoked regularly. 2 Similarly, recent national Swedish statistics show that the general trend of decreased smoking in the population is no longer present in young women aged [16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29] years, where daily smoking increased from 10% in 2009 to 13% in 2011. 3 Smoking rates have traditionally been higher in men, but women are increasingly starting to smoke at an age equivalent to that of men.…”

Natural Progression of Childhood Asthma Symptoms and Strong Influence of Sex and Puberty

“…Asthma is known to affect males more in childhood and females more in adulthood (1)(2)(3). Studies supporting this observation have focused on four epidemiologic aspects of the disease: (1) cross-sectional prevalence (4)(5)(6)(7)(8)(9)(10)(11)(12)(13)(14)(15)(16)(17), (2) onset (18)(19)(20), (3) remission and relapse (21)(22)(23)(24)(25)(26)(27)(28)(29)(30)(31), and (4) healthcare use (32)(33)(34)(35)(36)(37)(38)(39)(40).…”