Use of oral moist tobacco (snus) in puberty and its association with asthma in the population-based RHINESSA study.

Objectives: To investigate the association of early snus use initiation (≤15 years of age) with asthma and asthma symptoms.

Design: Cross-sectional analysis of a population-based cohort.

Setting: Study centres in Norway, Sweden, Iceland, Denmark and Estonia, from 2016 to 2019.

Pregnancy outcomes as related to in utero exposure to air pollution and greenness: The Life-GAP Project.

Background: Lower birth weight and preterm birth may increase the risk of adverse health outcomes later in life. We examined whether maternal exposure to air pollution and greenness during pregnancy is associated with offspring birth weight and preterm birth.

Methods: We analyzed data on 4286 singleton births from 2358 mothers from Respiratory Health in Northern Europe, a prospective questionnaire-based cohort study (1990-2010).

Early life exposures contributing to accelerated lung function decline in adulthood - a follow-up study of 11,000 adults from the general population.

Background: We aimed to assess whether exposure to risk factors in early life from conception to puberty continue to contribute to lung function decline later in life by using a pooled cohort comprising approx. 11,000 adults followed for more than 20 years and with up to three lung function measurements.

Methods: Participants (20-68 years) in the ECRHS and NFBC1966 cohort studies followed in the periods 1991-2013 and 1997-2013, respectively, were included.

Spirometric patterns in young and middle-aged adults: a 20-year European study.

Background: Understanding the natural history of abnormal spirometric patterns at different stages of life is critical to identify and optimise preventive strategies. We aimed to describe characteristics and risk factors of restrictive and obstructive spirometric patterns occurring before 40 years (young onset) and between 40 and 61 years (mid-adult onset).

Methods: We used data from the population-based cohort of the European Community Respiratory Health Survey (ECRHS).

SNPs inandgenes are associated with FeNO in adult subjects with asthma.

Nitric oxide has different roles in asthma as both an endogenous modulator of airway function and a pro-inflammatory mediator. Fractional exhaled nitric oxide (FeNO) is a reliable, quantitative, non-invasive, simple, and safe biomarker for assessing airways inflammation in asthma. Previous genome-wide and genetic association studies have shown that different genes and single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) are linked to FeNO.

Impact of long-term exposure to ambient ozone on lung function over a course of 20 years (The ECRHS study): a prospective cohort study in adults.

Background: While the adverse effects of short-term ambient ozone exposure on lung function are well-documented, the impact of long-term exposure remains poorly understood, especially in adults.

Methods: We aimed to investigate the association between long-term ozone exposure and lung function decline. The 3014 participants were drawn from 17 centers across eight countries, all of which were from the European Community Respiratory Health Survey (ECRHS).

Risk factors for colonization with multidrug-resistant Gram-negative bacteria and in Long Term Care Facilities (LTCFs) residents: the evidence from 27 facilities in a high endemic setting.

Introduction: Residency in LTCFs increases the likelihood of colonization with multidrug resistant Gram-negative bacteria (MDR-GNB). We assessed the prevalence and risk factors for enteric colonization by III-generation cephalosporins-resistant and carbapenem-resistant (CR) GNB in a large group of LTCFs in a high endemic setting. We also assessed the prevalence and risk factors for colonization.

Gene Polymorphism Is Associated with Total IgE in Adult Subjects with Asthma.

The allergic asthma phenotype is characterized by a T helper type 2 (Th2) immune response, based on Immunoglobulin E (IgE)-mediated type 1 hypersensitivity reactions. Total IgE is the sum of all IgE types produced by the human body and is used as a biomarker of inflammation in asthma. We analysed data collected in 143 asthma cases (median age 42.

Subjects who developed SARS-CoV-2 specific IgM after vaccination show a longer humoral immunity and a lower frequency of infection.

Background: We have previously shown that eliciting SARS-CoV-2-specific IgM after vaccination is associated with higher levels of SARS-CoV-2 neutralizing IgG. This study aims to assess whether IgM development is also associated with longer-lasting immunity.

Methods: We analysed anti-SARS-CoV-2 spike protein IgG and IgM (IgG-S, IgM-S), and anti-nucleocapsid IgG (IgG-N) in 1872 vaccinees at different time points: before the first dose (D1; w0), before the second dose (D2; w3) at three (w6) and 23 weeks (w29) after D2; moreover, 109 subjects were further tested at the booster dose (D3, w44), at 3 weeks (w47) and 6 months (w70) after D3.

Long-term air pollution exposure, greenspace and health-related quality of life in the ECRHS study.

Background: Associations of long-term exposure to air pollution and greenspace with health-related quality of life (HRQOL) are poorly studied and few studies have accounted for asthma-rhinitis status.

Objective: To assess the associations of air pollution and greenspace with HRQOL and whether asthma and/or rhinitis modify these associations.

Methods: The study was based on the participants in the second (2000-2002, n = 6542) and third (2011-2013, n = 3686) waves of the European Community Respiratory Health Survey (ECRHS) including 19 centres.

Long-term effect of asthma on the development of obesity among adults: an international cohort study, ECRHS.

Introduction: Obesity is a known risk factor for asthma. Although some evidence showed asthma causing obesity in children, the link between asthma and obesity has not been investigated in adults.

Methods: We used data from the European Community Respiratory Health Survey (ECRHS), a cohort study in 11 European countries and Australia in 3 waves between 1990 and 2014, at intervals of approximately 10 years.

Parental Prepuberty Overweight and Offspring Lung Function.

In a recent study we found that fathers' but not mothers' onset of overweight in puberty was associated with asthma in adult offspring. The potential impact on offspring's adult lung function, a key marker of general and respiratory health, has not been studied. We investigated the potential causal effects of parents' overweight on adult offspring's lung function within the paternal and maternal lines.

SARS-CoV-2 vaccination elicits unconventional IgM specific responses in naïve and previously COVID-19-infected individuals.

Background: Currently, evaluation of the IgG antibodies specific for the SARS-CoV-2 Spike protein following vaccination is used worldwide to estimate vaccine response. Limited data are available on vaccine-elicited IgM antibodies and their potential implication in immunity to SARS-CoV-2.

Methods: We performed a longitudinal study to quantify anti-S SARS-CoV-2 IgG and IgM (IgG-S and IgM-S) in health care worker (HCW) recipients of the BNT162b2 vaccine.

The Exposome Approach in Allergies and Lung Diseases: Is It Time to Define a Preconception Exposome?

Emerging research suggests environmental exposures before conception may adversely affect allergies and lung diseases in future generations. Most studies are limited as they have focused on single exposures, not considering that these diseases have a multifactorial origin in which environmental and lifestyle factors are likely to interact. Traditional exposure assessment methods fail to capture the interactions among environmental exposures and their impact on fundamental biological processes, as well as individual and temporal factors.

Communication of personalised disease risk by general practitioners to motivate smoking cessation in England: a cost-effectiveness and research prioritisation study.

Background And Aims: Communication of personalised disease risk can motivate smoking cessation. We assessed whether routine implementation of this intervention by general practitioners (GPs) in England is cost-effective or whether we need further research to better establish its effectiveness.

Design: Cost-effectiveness analysis (CEA) with value of information (VoI) analysis from the UK National Health Service perspective, using GP communication of personalised disease risk on smoking cessation versus usual care.

Cross-sectional study on exhaled nitric oxide in relation to upper airway inflammatory disorders with regard to asthma and perennial sensitization.

Background: Fractional exhaled nitric oxide (FeNO) is a well-known marker of type-2 inflammation. FeNO is elevated in asthma and allergic rhinitis, with IgE sensitization as a major determinant.

Objective: We aimed to see whether there was an independent association between upper airway inflammatory disorders (UAID) and FeNO, after adjustment for asthma and sensitization, in a multi-centre population-based study.

Exposures during the prepuberty period and future offspring's health: evidence from human cohort studies†.

Emerging evidence suggests that exposures in prepuberty, particularly in fathers-to-be, may impact the phenotype of future offspring. Analyses of the RHINESSA cohort find that offspring of father's exposed to tobacco smoking or overweight that started in prepuberty demonstrate poorer respiratory health in terms of more asthma and lower lung function. A role of prepuberty onset smoking for offspring fat mass is suggested in the RHINESSA and ALSPAC cohorts, and historic studies suggest that ancestral nutrition during prepuberty plays a role for grand-offspring's health and morbidity.

Bronchodilator response and lung function decline: Associations with exhaled nitric oxide with regard to sex and smoking status.

Background: Fractional exhaled nitric oxide (FeNO) is a marker of type-2 inflammation used both to support diagnosis of asthma and follow up asthma patients. The associations of FeNO with lung function decline and bronchodilator (BD) response have been studied only scarcely in large populations.

Objectives: To study the association between FeNO and a) retrospective lung function decline over 20 years, and b) lung function response to BD among asthmatic subjects compared with non-asthmatic subjects and with regards to current smoking and sex.

The coexistence of asthma and COPD: risk factors, clinical history and lung function trajectories.

Patients with concomitant features of asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) have a heavy disease burden.Using data collected prospectively in the European Community Respiratory Health Survey, we compared the risk factors, clinical history and lung function trajectories from early adulthood to late sixties of middle-aged subjects with asthma+COPD (n=179), past (n=263) or current (n=808) asthma alone, COPD alone (n=111) or none of these (n=3477).Interview data and pre-bronchodilator forced expiratory volume in 1 s (FEV) and forced vital capacity (FVC) were obtained during three clinical examinations in 1991-1993, 1999-2002 and 2010-2013.

Prenatal and prepubertal exposures to tobacco smoke in men may cause lower lung function in future offspring: a three-generation study using a causal modelling approach.

Mechanistic research suggests that lifestyle and environmental factors impact respiratory health across generations by epigenetic changes transmitted through male germ cells. Evidence from studies on humans is very limited.We investigated multigeneration causal associations to estimate the causal effects of tobacco smoking on lung function within the paternal line.

Health impact assessment to predict the impact of tobacco price increases on COPD burden in Italy, England and Sweden.

Raising tobacco prices effectively reduces smoking, the main risk factor for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Using the Health Impact Assessment tool "DYNAMO-HIA", this study quantified the reduction in COPD burden that would occur in Italy, England and Sweden over 40 years if tobacco prices were increased by 5%, 10% and 20% over current local prices, with larger increases considered in secondary analyses. A dynamic Markov-based multi-state simulation modelling approach estimated the effect of changes in smoking prevalence states and probabilities of transitioning between smoking states on future smoking prevalence, COPD burden and life expectancy in each country.

Lifelong exposure to air pollution and greenness in relation to asthma, rhinitis and lung function in adulthood.

Objectives: To investigate if air pollution and greenness exposure from birth till adulthood affects adult asthma, rhinitis and lung function.

Methods: We analysed data from 3428 participants (mean age 28) in the RHINESSA study in Norway and Sweden. Individual mean annual residential exposures to nitrogen dioxide (NO), particulate matter (PM and PM), black carbon (BC), ozone (O) and greenness (normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI)) were averaged across susceptibility windows (0-10 years, 10-18 years, lifetime, adulthood (year before study participation)) and analysed in relation to physician diagnosed asthma (ever/allergic/non-allergic), asthma attack last 12 months, current rhinitis and low lung function (lower limit of normal (LLN), z-scores of forced expiratory volume in one second (FEV), forced vital capacity (FVC) and FEV/FVC below 1.