LIFE-STYLE AND BEHAVIORAL RISK-FACTORS ASSOCIATED WITH ASTHMA MORBIDITY IN ADULTS

We studied the association between morbidity and personal lifestyle/be havioural factors that predispose to exposure to known environmental p recipitants of asthma, in a group of asthmatics (n=787) in primary-car e clinics. Clinical severity of asthma was determined by questions reg arding the frequency of daytime or nocturnal attacks, the number of vi sits to primary cave or hospital emergency departments for treatment o f acute attacks, and the number of hospitalizations, as well as the am ount of sick leave in the past year. Questions concerning risk factors included ethnicity, clinical atopic status (current rhinitis/eczema), smoking, occupation, keeping of pets, rugs and carpets, use of brooms , burning of mosquito coils or incense, and outdoor air pollution, as well as the patient's knowledge of asthma care. The most significant i ndependent predictors of asthma morbidity, identified from multivariat e logistic regression analyses, were current keeping of either pets or rugs/carpets (OR 1.49; 95% CI 1.12-1.99), and current high-risk occup ations (OR 0.59, 95% CI 0.40-0.89). A multiplicity of interacting fact ors and behavioural responses appear to influence the effects of aller gens and other environmental precipitants on asthma morbidity in patie nts.