The relationship between age of asthma onset and cardiovascular disease in Canadians.
OBJECTIVE
To quantify the association between cardiovascular disease (CVD) and asthma in Canadian adults and to determine whether age of asthma onset is a moderator of this association.


METHODS
We used a sample of 74 342 participants with a mean age of 56.4 +/- 12.5 from cycle 1.1 of the Canadian Community Health Survey. Asthma age of onset was categorized into early-onset (0-20 years) and adult-onset (21-54 years). Three major outcomes were used to estimate the relationship between asthma and CVD, namely: high blood pressure, heart disease, and stroke.


RESULTS
Multiple logistic regression models revealed that asthmatics were 43% (OR = 1.43, CI = 1.19-1.72) more likely to have heart disease, and 36% (OR = 1.36, CI = 1.21-1.53) more likely to have high blood pressure than non-asthmatics. There were no consistent results for age of onset with high blood pressure, heart disease, or stroke.


CONCLUSIONS
Using a population-based dataset we confirmed that asthmatics are at increased odds of cardiovascular disease compared to non-asthmatics; furthermore, age of asthma onset did not appear to moderate this relationship. Future research should focus on determining whether asthma severity or allergic/non-allergic phenotypes have a differential effect on the asthma-CVD relationship.
D017668:Age of Onset; D001249:Asthma / Q000150:complications* / Q000453:epidemiology*; D002170:Canada; D005260:Female; D006331:Heart Diseases / Q000150:complications* / Q000453:epidemiology*; D006801:Humans; D006973:Hypertension / Q000150:complications* / Q000453:epidemiology*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D020521:Stroke / Q000150:complications* / Q000453:epidemiology*