Traffic at residential address, respiratory health, and atopy in adults: the National German Health Survey 1998.

Motor vehicle traffic contributes to more than 50% of PM10 in Europe and might have far reaching impacts on human health. We investigated the relationship between residential street type as a surrogate for traffic intensity and the prevalence of respiratory symptoms, atopic diseases, and allergic sensitization in adults. Data from 6896 subjects of the German Health Survey 1998 with complete information on residential street type were used.

Residual analysis in linear regression models with an interval-censored covariate.

Residual analysis is a useful class of techniques for the evaluation of the goodness of a fitted model. Checking the underlying assumptions is important since most linear regression estimators require a correctly specified regression function and independent and identically distributed errors to be consistent. For uncensored data, the examination of the residuals of the fitted model is a standard tool for checking whether or not the underlying model assumptions hold.

Indoor and outdoor air concentrations of BTEX and NO2: correlation of repeated measurements.

Studies on health effects of air pollutants ideally define exposure through the collection of air samples in the participants' homes. Concentrations derived from these samples are then considered as an estimate for the average concentration of air pollutants in the homes. Conclusions drawn from such studies therefore depend very much on the validity of the measured air pollution concentrations.

Rhinitis and blood pressure in adults.

Recently, a study of 330 adults reported increased systolic blood pressure and higher hypertension rates in men with rhinitis. We replicated this study using data from a population-based sample of 896 subjects participating in the European Respiratory Health Survey and in a study on "Monitoring of Trends and Determinants of Cardiovascular Diseases" in Erfurt, Germany. Rhinitis was assessed by questionnaire, blood pressure was measured using a standardized method, and subjects were asked about current use of any high blood pressure medication.

TLR4 gene variants modify endotoxin effects on asthma.

Background: Environmental exposure to endotoxin might have a crucial role in immune maturation and development of asthma.

Objective: The aim of this study was to investigate whether the effect of endotoxin concentration in settled house dust on asthma is modified by the presence of variation in the TLR4 gene.

Methods: We performed a cross-sectional study within the German follow-up of the European Community Respiratory Health Survey.