title: Respiratory findings in art students.
abstract: Art students are exposed to many noxious agents during their training. We studied respiratory findings in a cohort of the 117 art students in order to investigate the potential effects of these toxic agents in the art student's environment. A group of 88 medical students matched for age, sex and smoking, not exposed to known environmental pollutants were studied as controls for respiratory symptoms. Respiratory symptoms acute and chronic were evaluated by modifying the British Medical Research Council questionnaire. Lung function studies were performed with a spirometer (Jaeger, Germany) measuring maximum expiratory flow-volume (MEFV) curves. Significantly higher prevalences of most of the chronic respiratory symptoms were recorded in art compared to medical students (p < 0.05). Art students who were smokers had significantly higher prevalences of many of the chronic respiratory symptoms than nonsmoking art students. High prevalences of acute symptoms related to the study environment were recorded for art students. Odds ratios in male art students were significant for chronic cough, chronic phlegm and chronic bronchitis for the risk factors of exposure and smoking. Significantly decreased lung function was recorded for FVC, FEF50 and FEF25 in male and FVC, and FEF25 in female art students. Smokers and nonsmokers had similar reductions of lung function. Our data indicate that art students may be at risk of developing chronic respiratory symptoms and lung function changes as a result of their exposure and their smoking habits.
authors.affiliation: "Andrija Stampar" School of Public Health, Medical School, University of Zagreb, Zagreb, Croatia. ezuskin@snz.hr
authors.forename: Eugenija
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Zuskin
authors.forename: Jadranka
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Mustajbegović
authors.forename: Neil E
authors.initials: NE
authors.lastname: Schachter
authors.forename: Mladen
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Pavlović
authors.forename: Umapathy
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Arumugam
authors.forename: Angelo
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Chiarelli
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D016902:Air Pollution, Indoor / Q000009:adverse effects*; D001154:Art; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D002908:Chronic Disease; D004781:Environmental Exposure; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D012129:Respiratory Function Tests; D012140:Respiratory Tract Diseases / Q000209:etiology*; D012907:Smoking / Q000009:adverse effects; D013334:Students