| Summary: | Abstract Little is known about a) the differences in allergic and respiratory diseases between the Finnish and Russian populations, and the environmental factors associated with those differences, and b) exposure to pollen grains indoors and the efficiency of penetration of pollen from outdoor to indoor air. This thesis is based on a cross-sectional population-based epidemiological study conducted in Imatra (Finland) and Svetogorsk (Russia) in 2003 and a rotorod-type-sampler-based pollen study conducted in the province of South Karelia (Finland) between 2003 and 2004. The prevalence of allergic diseases was higher among Finnish than Russian schoolchildren. The symptoms among allergic children were more severe, and the occurrence of respiratory infections was in general more frequent in Russia than in Finland. In the logistic regression analyses the risk of asthma was particularly related to high maternal smoking exposure, and the risk of the common cold was related to high combined parental smoking during infancy (adjusted OR 1.83, 95% CI 1.06–3.17) in Finnish children. Among Russian children, allergic conjunctivitis was related to maternal smoking, while the common cold was inversely related to paternal and parental smoking (0.60, 0.37–0.98 and 0.31, 0.11–0.83, respectively) during the study period. The risk of asthma was inversely related to any indoor dog-keeping in Finland (0.35, 0.13–0.95), whereas in Russia the risk of asthma was increased in relation to combined indoor cat exposure during infancy and the study period (4.56, 1.10–18.91). The concentrations of pollen grains decreased from abundant (0–855 pollen grains per cubic meter, pg/m3) to low (0–3 pg/m3), when moving from outdoors to indoors and further. The differences in diseases and symptoms in these two closely related populations could be ascribed to differences in culture, exposures, diagnostic criteria and treatment. The concentrations of pollen in indoor air during the flowering period were mostly on a level high enough to cause reactions in ...
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