title: The relationship of eosinophilia and positive skin test reactivity to respiratory symptom prevalence in a community-based population study.
abstract: We studied the relationship of the prevalence of a variety of respiratory symptoms to positive skin test reactivity (skin test index greater than or equal to 3) and/or eosinophilia (greater than or equal to 275 eosinophilic cells per cubic millimeter of blood) in a community-based population sample (N = 2805), adjusting for age, gender, area of residence, and cigarette smoking. We considered subjects with neither positive skin test reactivity nor eosinophilia to be the reference group. Positive skin test reactivity without eosinophilia (N = 487; 17.3%) was significantly associated with persistent wheeze (odds ratio value (OR) = 1.6; 95% confidence interval of the odds ratio value (CI) = 1.0 to 2.6) and with asthmatic attacks (OR = 3.2; CI = 2.0 to 5.3). Positive skin test reactivity in combination with eosinophilia (N = 92; 3.3%) was also significantly associated with persistent wheeze (OR = 2.7; CI = 1.2 to 6.0) and with asthmatic attacks (OR = 10.4; CI = 5.3 to 20.2), however, with a stronger association than in subjects with positive skin test reactivity alone. Finally, eosinophilia without positive skin test reactivity (N = 170; 6.1%) was significantly associated with chronic cough (OR = 1.8; CI = 1.2 to 2.7), bronchitis episodes (OR = 2.1; CI = 1.4 to 3.2), dyspnea grade greater than or equal to III (OR = 1.7; CI = 1.0 to 2.8), and asthmatic attacks (OR = 3.0; CI = 1.5 to 6.6).(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
authors.affiliation: Department of Epidemiology, Groningen University, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: T T
authors.initials: TT
authors.lastname: Mensinga
authors.forename: J P
authors.initials: JP
authors.lastname: Schouten
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Rijcken
authors.forename: S T
authors.initials: ST
authors.lastname: Weiss
authors.forename: F E
authors.initials: FE
authors.lastname: Speizer
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: van der Lende
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D015331:Cohort Studies; D004802:Eosinophilia / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000276:immunology; D004804:Eosinophils; D006801:Humans; D007958:Leukocyte Count; D008173:Lung Diseases, Obstructive / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000276:immunology; D008875:Middle Aged; D009426:Netherlands / Q000453:epidemiology; D015995:Prevalence; D012424:Rural Population / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D016036:Seroepidemiologic Studies; D012737:Sex Factors; D012882:Skin Tests; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014505:Urban Population / Q000706:statistics & numerical data