title: Prevalence of asthma and allergies in children from the Greek-Cypriot and Turkish-Cypriot communities in Cyprus: a bi-communal cross-sectional study.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The Greek-Cypriot (G/C) and Turkish-Cypriot (T/C) communities have lived apart since 1974, with the former presumably adopting a more westernized way of life. We estimated the prevalence of asthma and allergies among children in the two communities and investigated differences in socio-demographic and lifestyle risk factors.
  
  
  METHODS
  The ISAAC questionnaire was completed by 10156 children aged 7-8 and 13-14 years. Relative differences in asthma and allergic symptoms between the two communities were expressed as odds ratios (OR), estimated in multivariable logistic regression models before and after adjusting for participants' risk characteristics.
  
  
  RESULTS
  In contrast to our original speculation, consistently lower prevalence rates were observed for respiratory outcomes (but not eczema) among G/C compared to T/C children in both age-groups. For instance, the prevalence of current wheeze among 7-8 year-olds was 8.7% vs 11.4% (OR = 0.74, 95%, CI: 0.61, 0.90) and of current rhinoconjuctivitis 2.6% vs 4.9% (OR = 0.52, 95% CI: 0.37, 0.71). Surprisingly, the proportion reporting family history of allergy was almost double in the G/C community. With the exception of early life nursery attendance, several protective factors were more prevalent amongst T/C, such as bedroom sharing, less urbanized environment and exposure to farm animals. In contrast, exposure to tobacco smoke was more frequent in the T/C community. Controlling for risk factors did not account for the observed lower prevalence of current wheeze (in the younger age-group) and rhinoconjuctivitis (in both age-groups) among G/C children while differences in the prevalence of eczema between the two communities were no longer statistically significant.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  A mixed picture of potential risk factors was observed in the two communities of Cyprus, not consistently favoring one over the other community since, for example, bedroom sharing and rural living but also exposure to tobacco smoke were more common among T/C children. Investigated risk factors do not fully account for the lower prevalence of asthma and allergies among G/C children, especially against a background of higher family history of allergy in this community.
authors.forename: Demetris
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Lamnisos
authors.forename: Maria
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Moustaki
authors.forename: Ourania
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Kolokotroni
authors.forename: Huseyin
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Koksoy
authors.forename: Muharrem
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Faiz
authors.forename: Kenan
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Arifoglu
authors.forename: Donald K
authors.initials: DK
authors.lastname: Milton
authors.forename: Nicos
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Middleton
authors.affiliation: Cyprus International Institute for Environmental & Public Health in Association with Harvard School of Public Health, Cyprus University of Technology, Limassol, Cyprus. p.yiallouros@cut.ac.cy.
authors.forename: Panayiotis K
authors.initials: PK
authors.lastname: Yiallouros
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D001249:Asthma / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000209:etiology; D002648:Child; D003153:Community Health Services; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D003535:Cyprus / Q000453:epidemiology; D005006:Ethnicity; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D006967:Hypersensitivity / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000209:etiology; D016015:Logistic Models; D008297:Male; D015995:Prevalence; D012307:Risk Factors; D012424:Rural Population; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires