Occupational risk factors for airway obstruction in a population-based study in Northern Europe.

Background: Airway obstruction is a key feature of asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary diseases (COPD). Smoking habits and workplace exposures to vapors, gas, dusts, and fumes (VGDF) could cause or exacerbate airway obstruction. The aim of this study is to evaluate the risk of airway obstruction due to smoking and workplace exposure, and their interaction, in a large population-based study.

Assessment of Global Lung Function Initiative (GLI) reference equations for diffusing capacity in relation to respiratory burden in the Swedish CArdioPulmonary bioImage Study (SCAPIS).

The Global Lung Function Initiative (GLI) has recently published international reference values for diffusing capacity of the lung for carbon monoxide ( ). Lower limit of normal (LLN), the 5th percentile, usually defines impaired We examined if the GLI LLN for differs from the LLN in a Swedish population of healthy, never-smoking individuals and how any such differences affect identification of subjects with respiratory burden.Spirometry, , chest high-resolution computed tomography (HRCT) and questionnaires were obtained from the first 15 040 participants, aged 50-64 years, of the Swedish CArdioPulmonary bioImage Study (SCAPIS).

Restrictive spirometric pattern and true pulmonary restriction in a general population sample aged 50 - 64 years.

Background: There is low diagnostic accuracy of the proxy restrictive spirometric pattern (RSP) to identify true pulmonary restriction. This knowledge is based on patients referred for spirometry and total lung volume determination by plethysmograpy, single breath nitrogen washout technique or gas dilution and selected controls. There is, however, a lack of data from general populations analyzing whether RSP is a valid proxy for true pulmonary restriction.

Pain could negatively affect school grades - Swedish middle school students with low school grades most affected.

Recurrent headache, abdominal and musculoskeletal pain are common in adolescents and it is therefore important to understand their impact on the transitional period from childhood to adulthood. However, studies of the prevalence over time and implications on educational outcomes are still limited, especially regarding multiple pain symptoms. The present study material consists of questionnaire surveys, completed in 2000 and 2008, including two study populations of 9th grade adolescents aged 15 living in West Sweden (n = 20 877).