The synergistic effect of heredity and exposure to second-hand smoke on adult-onset asthma.

Rationale: Identification of the subpopulation especially susceptible to the adverse effects of second-hand smoke exposure (SHS) would be useful for preventive actions and interventions.

Objectives: To investigate whether asthmatic heredity indicates susceptibility to the effects of SHS on the risk of adult-onset asthma.

Methods: A population-based incident case-control study of clinically defined adult-onset asthma and randomly drawn control subjects (adults 21-63 yr old) from a geographically defined area in South Finland.

Cold-related cardiorespiratory symptoms among subjects with and without hypertension: the National FINRISK Study 2002.

Background: Exposure to cold weather increases blood pressure (BP) and may aggravate the symptoms and influence the prognosis of subjects with a diagnosis of hypertension. We tested the hypothesis that subjects with hypertension alone or in combination with another cardiovascular disease (CVD) experience cold-related cardiorespiratory symptoms more commonly than persons without hypertension. This information is relevant for proper treatment and could serve as an indicator for predicting wintertime morbidity and mortality.