The urban-rural gradient in asthma: A population-based study in Northern Europe

The early life environment appears to have a persistent impact on asthma risk. We hypothesize that environmental factors related to rural life mediate lower asthma prevalence in rural populations, and aimed to investigate an urban-rural gradient, assessed by place of upbringing, for asthma. The popu...

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Published in:International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health
Main Authors: Timm, Signe, Frydenberg, Morten, Janson, Christer, Campbell, Brittany, Forsberg, Bertil, Gíslason, Þórarinn, Holm, Mathias, Jõgi, Rain, Omenaas, Ernst, Sigsgaard, Torben, Svanes, Cecilie, Schlünssen, Vivi
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: MDPI 2016
Subjects:
Online Access:https://hdl.handle.net/1956/12477
https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph13010093
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spelling ftunivbergen:oai:bora.uib.no:1956/12477 2023-05-15T16:50:50+02:00 The urban-rural gradient in asthma: A population-based study in Northern Europe Timm, Signe Frydenberg, Morten Janson, Christer Campbell, Brittany Forsberg, Bertil Gíslason, Þórarinn Holm, Mathias Jõgi, Rain Omenaas, Ernst Sigsgaard, Torben Svanes, Cecilie Schlünssen, Vivi 2016-04-08T11:25:07Z application/pdf https://hdl.handle.net/1956/12477 https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph13010093 eng eng MDPI urn:issn:1660-4601 https://hdl.handle.net/1956/12477 https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph13010093 cristin:1333740 Attribution CC BY http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Copyright 2015 by the authors asthma early life environment farming microbial exposure urban-rural gradient hygiene hypothesis RHINE Peer reviewed Journal article 2016 ftunivbergen https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph13010093 2023-03-14T17:40:00Z The early life environment appears to have a persistent impact on asthma risk. We hypothesize that environmental factors related to rural life mediate lower asthma prevalence in rural populations, and aimed to investigate an urban-rural gradient, assessed by place of upbringing, for asthma. The population-based Respiratory Health In Northern Europe (RHINE) study includes subjects from Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Iceland and Estonia born 1945–1973. The present analysis encompasses questionnaire data on 11,123 RHINE subjects. Six categories of place of upbringing were defined: farm with livestock, farm without livestock, village in rural area, small town, city suburb and inner city. The association of place of upbringing with asthma onset was analysed with Cox regression adjusted for relevant confounders. Subjects growing up on livestock farms had less asthma (8%) than subjects growing up in inner cities (11%) (hazard ratio 0.72 95% CI 0.57–0.91), and a significant urban-rural gradient was observed across six urbanisation levels (p = 0.02). An urban-rural gradient was only evident among women, smokers and for late-onset asthma. Analyses on wheeze and place of upbringing revealed similar results. In conclusion, this study suggests a protective effect of livestock farm upbringing on asthma development and an urban-rural gradient in a Northern European population. publishedVersion Article in Journal/Newspaper Iceland University of Bergen: Bergen Open Research Archive (BORA-UiB) Norway International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health 13 1 93
institution Open Polar
collection University of Bergen: Bergen Open Research Archive (BORA-UiB)
op_collection_id ftunivbergen
language English
topic asthma
early life environment
farming
microbial exposure
urban-rural gradient
hygiene hypothesis
RHINE
spellingShingle asthma
early life environment
farming
microbial exposure
urban-rural gradient
hygiene hypothesis
RHINE
Timm, Signe
Frydenberg, Morten
Janson, Christer
Campbell, Brittany
Forsberg, Bertil
Gíslason, Þórarinn
Holm, Mathias
Jõgi, Rain
Omenaas, Ernst
Sigsgaard, Torben
Svanes, Cecilie
Schlünssen, Vivi
The urban-rural gradient in asthma: A population-based study in Northern Europe
topic_facet asthma
early life environment
farming
microbial exposure
urban-rural gradient
hygiene hypothesis
RHINE
description The early life environment appears to have a persistent impact on asthma risk. We hypothesize that environmental factors related to rural life mediate lower asthma prevalence in rural populations, and aimed to investigate an urban-rural gradient, assessed by place of upbringing, for asthma. The population-based Respiratory Health In Northern Europe (RHINE) study includes subjects from Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Iceland and Estonia born 1945–1973. The present analysis encompasses questionnaire data on 11,123 RHINE subjects. Six categories of place of upbringing were defined: farm with livestock, farm without livestock, village in rural area, small town, city suburb and inner city. The association of place of upbringing with asthma onset was analysed with Cox regression adjusted for relevant confounders. Subjects growing up on livestock farms had less asthma (8%) than subjects growing up in inner cities (11%) (hazard ratio 0.72 95% CI 0.57–0.91), and a significant urban-rural gradient was observed across six urbanisation levels (p = 0.02). An urban-rural gradient was only evident among women, smokers and for late-onset asthma. Analyses on wheeze and place of upbringing revealed similar results. In conclusion, this study suggests a protective effect of livestock farm upbringing on asthma development and an urban-rural gradient in a Northern European population. publishedVersion
format Article in Journal/Newspaper
author Timm, Signe
Frydenberg, Morten
Janson, Christer
Campbell, Brittany
Forsberg, Bertil
Gíslason, Þórarinn
Holm, Mathias
Jõgi, Rain
Omenaas, Ernst
Sigsgaard, Torben
Svanes, Cecilie
Schlünssen, Vivi
author_facet Timm, Signe
Frydenberg, Morten
Janson, Christer
Campbell, Brittany
Forsberg, Bertil
Gíslason, Þórarinn
Holm, Mathias
Jõgi, Rain
Omenaas, Ernst
Sigsgaard, Torben
Svanes, Cecilie
Schlünssen, Vivi
author_sort Timm, Signe
title The urban-rural gradient in asthma: A population-based study in Northern Europe
title_short The urban-rural gradient in asthma: A population-based study in Northern Europe
title_full The urban-rural gradient in asthma: A population-based study in Northern Europe
title_fullStr The urban-rural gradient in asthma: A population-based study in Northern Europe
title_full_unstemmed The urban-rural gradient in asthma: A population-based study in Northern Europe
title_sort urban-rural gradient in asthma: a population-based study in northern europe
publisher MDPI
publishDate 2016
url https://hdl.handle.net/1956/12477
https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph13010093
geographic Norway
geographic_facet Norway
genre Iceland
genre_facet Iceland
op_relation urn:issn:1660-4601
https://hdl.handle.net/1956/12477
https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph13010093
cristin:1333740
op_rights Attribution CC BY
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Copyright 2015 by the authors
op_doi https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph13010093
container_title International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health
container_volume 13
container_issue 1
container_start_page 93
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