Chest
Original ResearchHome Exposures, Parental Atopy, and Occurrence of Asthma Symptoms in Adulthood in Southern Taiwan
Section snippets
Population and Study Design
Southern Taiwan, the southernmost part of Taiwan Island, comprises five administrative districts: Tainan City, Tainan County, Kaohsiung City, Kaohsiung County, and Pintung County. The overall population and territory of this area in 2002 were 5,501,747 people and 7,914 square kilometers. Between March and October 2004, we conducted a cross-sectional, school-based survey for respiratory diseases and symptoms in middle- and elementary-school children and their parents. Twenty of the 189 middle
Results
Our study surveyed the parents of 35,682 children from 94 elementary and middle schools. A total of 9,990 subjects were excluded from our study due to refusal participation, inadequate demographic information, or missing responses to the key questions. Data from 25,692 subjects remained satisfactory, with an overall response rate of 72.1%. Most of the participants were between 26 and 50 years old. We omitted 908 subjects > 50 years old; 24,784 subjects (9,662 male and 15,122 female) were left
Discussion
Our large cross-sectional questionnaire survey among 26- to 50-year-old adults provides evidence of the effects of hereditary and environmental factors on the occurrence of adulthood asthma in Taiwan. Although our study was cross-sectional, we analyzed data by case-control study method, which was very efficient compared with a cohort study yielding a similar amount of information. Our data corresponded to a follow-up of 24,784 adults for 5 years, and the incidence of typical asthma symptoms was
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This study was supported by grant DOH93-HP-1108 from Bureau of Health Promotion, Department of Health, Taiwan.
Reproduction of this article is prohibited without written permission from the American College of Chest Physicians (www.chestjournal.org/misc/reprints.shtml).