PubMed Health⌕ Search

Biomedical subjects

E Plana

Publications and source records attributed to E Plana.

2 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2007

Socioeconomic status, asthma and chronic bronchitis in a large community-based study.

The present study investigated the relationship between socioeconomic status, using measures of occupational class and education level, and the prevalence and incidence of asthma (with and without atopy) and chronic bronchitis using data from the European Community Respiratory Health Survey (ECRHS). Asthma and chronic bronchitis were studied prospectively within the ECRHS (n = 9,023). Incidence analyses comprised subjects with no history of asthma or bronchitis at baseline. Asthma symptoms were also assessed as a continuous score. Bronchitis risk was associated with low educational level (prevalence odds ratio (POR) 1.9; 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.4-2.8) and occupational class (1.8; 1.2-2.7). Incident bronchitis also increased with low educational level (risk ratio (RR) 2.8; 95%CI 1.5-5.4). Prevalent and incident asthma with no atopy were associated with low educational level. Subjects in the low occupational class (incident risk ratio (IRR) 1.4; 95%CI 1.2-1.7) and education group (IRR 1.3; 95% CI 1.1-1.6) had higher mean asthma scores than those in higher socioeconomic groups. Lower educational level was associated with increased risk of prevalent and incident chronic bronchitis and asthma with no atopy. Lower socioeconomic groups tended to have a higher prevalence and incidence of asthma, particularly higher mean asthma scores. Adjustment for variables associated with asthma and bronchitis explained little of the observed health differences by socioeconomic status.

Adult↗
PubMed2005

Maternal atopy and changes in parity.

BACKGROUND: Atopic women tend to have fewer children, although atopy may favour conception. OBJECTIVE: To assess whether atopy is associated with the number of new births and whether changes in parity are associated with a change in atopy in a cohort of young women. METHODS: Women had atopy (defined as the presence of serum-specific IgE against common aeroallergens) measured in the European Community Respiratory Health Study during the years 1991--92 (n=4580). About 9 years later, 2844 (62.1%) were recontacted and 2414 (52.7%) had atopy measured again. RESULTS: Atopic women had fewer children at baseline than non-atopic women but the association disappeared at the end of the follow-up. Atopy tended to increase parity during the follow-up, but in a non-statistically significant way (relative risk=1.08; 0.86-1.35, after adjusting for number of children at baseline, age, length of follow-up, education or social class). Prevalence of atopy during the follow-up changed by the same magnitude whatever the birth cohort and the change in the number of children (P for interaction >0.7). CONCLUSION: Atopic women did not have a significantly higher fertility rate but they may postpone having their first child compared with non-atopic women. We are unable to confirm the hypothesis that atopy in women may decrease with successive pregnancies.

Adult↗