| Summary: | Background: Asthma is one of the most common chronic obstructive airway diseases among children and adults, with a prevalence between 6-11% in European countries. It is also the most common work-related occupational respiratory disease. There are different methods to classify occupational exposure and, even though there is no clear consensus on which method is the most accurate, the single-item question on exposure to the composite measure vapour, gas, dust or fumes (VGDF) is commonly used in epidemiological research. Low socioeconomic status is associated with asthma and also behavioural factors such as smoking and over-weight, which by themselves are risk factors for asthma. Socioeconomic status is, however, truly a multifaceted concept and using only one measure does not encompass its entire effect on health-related outcomes. Asthma does also have a negative impact on the quality of life among adolescents: they report less physical fitness compared to their peers and more school absenteeism due to respiratory symptoms. Still, research on whether childhood asthma has any impact on socioeconomic status in young adulthood is scarce. Aim: The overall aim is to study social determinants of health such as socioeconomic status, occupation and occupational exposure and their relationship with asthma and respiratory symptoms among adults and further, to evaluate if asthma during childhood or adolescence is associated with social determinants in young adulthood. Method: This thesis includes four papers based on data from the Obstructive Lung Disease in Northern Sweden (OLIN) studies. Papers I-III are cross-sectional studies among adults; a structured interview from clinical examinations between 2002-04 (paper I, n=4036) and postal questionnaire surveys from 2006 (paper II, n=9992) and 2016 (paper III, n=6854) with the addition of register-based data in paper III. Paper IV is a longitudinal prospective cohort study; the first OLIN paediatric cohort followed from 7 to 19 years of age and a postal questionnaire follow-up ...
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