© 2004 by European Journal of Public Health
Chronic diseases |
Postal survey on asthma, chronic bronchitis and respiratory symptoms among adult Estonians and non-Estonians (FinEsS-study)
Lii Jannus-Pruljan1, Mari Meren1, Jaak Põlluste1, Helle-Mai Loit1, Jaak Kiviloog2, Aleksei Baburin3 and Bo Lundbäck41 Department of Pulmonology, Institute of Experimental and Clinical Medicine, Tallinn, Estonia 2 Department of Respiratory Medicine, Örebro University Hospital, Örebro, Sweden 3 Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Institute of Experimental and Clinical Medicine, Tallinn, Estonia 4 Unit for Lung and Allergy Research, National Institute of Environmental Medicine, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden
Background: According to the data of the population census held in Estonia in 1989, the resident population consisted of 61.5% Estonians and 38.5% non-Estonians, the majority of them being Russians – 30.3%. The aim of this study was to investigate the prevalence of asthma, chronic bronchitis and respiratory symptoms among the adults in these ethnic groups. Methods: The study was a postal survey, similar in design to parallel studies currently in progress in Finland, Estonia and Sweden (FinEsS). Results: The prevalence of physician-diagnosed asthma was 2.0%, being similar in men and women and in both Estonians and non-Estonians. The prevalence of physician-diagnosed chronic bronchitis was 10.5%. Compared with the non-Estonian population, the prevalence was much lower among Estonians (7.9% vs. 13.5%, p<0.001). Such a difference in prevalence was observed in all age groups. The high prevalence of chronic bronchitis in non-Estonians could be related to more extensive smoking habits, smoking indoors and probably ETS exposure. The defined OR between non-Estonians vs. Estonians after correcting for the influence of smoking habits, area of domicile, age, gender, and socioeconomic group was 1.30. A similar pattern of differences between Estonians and non-Estonians was observed in respiratory symptoms. Conclusion: This study revealed that the prevalence of physician-diagnosed asthma in Estonians and non-Estonians was the same. Physician-diagnosed chronic bronchitis was more frequent in non-Estonians than in Estonians. A significant difference was determined in the prevalence of respiratory symptoms, especially among those common to chronic bronchitis. The differences remained significant after correction for possible confounders.
Keywords: asthma, chronic bronchitis, epidemiology, ethnic groups, respiratory symptoms
Received 24 July 2002. Accepted 9 January 2003.
* Correspondence: Lii Jannus-Pruljan, MD, PhD, professor, Department of Pulmonology, Institute of Experimental and Clinical Medicine, 42 Hiiu Str, 11619 Tallinn, Estonia, tel. +372 6 6572062, fax +372 6 706814, e-mail: ekmipulmo{at}hot.ee
CiteULike 
Connotea 
Del.icio.us What's this?
This article has been cited by other articles:
|
|
 |
|
  T. T. Hugg, M. S. Jaakkola, R. O. Ruotsalainen, V. J. Pushkarev, and J. J.K. Jaakkola Parental smoking behaviour and effects of tobacco smoke on children's health in Finland and Russia Eur J Public Health, February 1, 2008; 18(1): 55 - 62. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
 |
|
 R. J. Halbert, J. L. Natoli, A. Gano, E. Badamgarav, A. S. Buist, and D. M. Mannino Global burden of COPD: systematic review and meta-analysis Eur. Respir. J., September 1, 2006; 28(3): 523 - 532. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|