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Background: Child-onset asthma is known to remit with high probability but remission in adult-onset asthma seems to be less common. Reports of association between remission and asthma onset age in adulthood are scarce. Objectives: To study if age at asthma diagnosis and gender are associated to remission rate in adult asthma population. Methods: In 2016, a random sample of 16 000 subjects aged 20-69 years from Helsinki and Western Finland were sent a FinEsS-questionnaire. Asthma was categorized by reported age when diagnosed with asthma by a physician: child (0-11 years) adolescent-young-adult (12-39 years) and late-adult-diagnosed (40-69 years). Remission was defined as a physician diagnosed asthma but not having had asthma symptoms, wheezing or use of asthma medication in the past 12 months. Results: 8199 subjects (51.5%) responded to the postal questionnaire. Remission was most common in child-diagnosed (30.2%), followed by adolescent-young-adult-diagnosed (17.9%) and least common in late-adult-diagnosed asthma (5.0%) (p Conclusion: Remission was rare (5%) in adults diagnosed with asthma after age 40 years in both sexes. Causes of poor prognosis in adult-onset asthma need to be further elucidated.

Background: Eventual differences of expiratory nitric oxide (FENO) levels in general populations of Nordic countries may reflect differences in eosinophilic inflammation at population level.Aim: To ...

Difference in Dyspnea between Swedish and Finnish Speaking Persons in Western Finland : Association with Lifestyle

Background: Asthma phenotypes can be differentiated by age of disease onset, but studies investigating age-specific incidence of asthma with a wide age span are scarce. Objectives: To evaluate incidence of asthma diagnosis at different ages and dominance between child- and adult-diagnosed asthma in a population-based study, by gender. Methods: In February 2016, a respiratory questionnaire was sent to 8000 randomly selected subjects aged 20-69 years in western Finland. After two reminders, 4173 (52.3%) subjects responded. Adult-diagnosed asthma was defined as physician-diagnosis of asthma made at ≥ 18 years of age. Results: Prevalence of physician-diagnosed asthma was 11.2%. Among those with asthma, altogether, 63.7% (95% CI 59.0-68.1%) of subjects, 58.4% (51.2-65.2%) of men and 67.8% (61.6-73.3%) of women (p=0.046), reported adult-diagnosed asthma. Incidence of asthma diagnosis was calculated in 10-year age groups and it peaked in young boys (0-9 years) and middle-aged women (40-49 years) (Figure 1). The average incidence rate during the examined period 1946-2015 was 2.2/1000/year. Adult-diagnosed asthma became the dominant phenotype among asthmatics by age of 50 years and 38 years in men and women, respectively. Conclusion: Asthma is mainly diagnosed in adulthood and the incidence of asthma diagnosis peaks in middle-aged women.

Background: Onset of allergic asthma has a strong association with childhood. Much less is known about adult onset asthma and its association with allergy.Objectives: To assess the proportion of al ...