Smoking linked to increased severity of new-onset asthma..

February 17, 2011 - Little is known about the association between cigarette smoking and asthma severity. We assessed smoking as a determinant of disease severity and control in a cohort of clinic-referred allergic subjects who developed new onset asthma.

For the current study, the researchers examined the influence of smoking on the severity of new-onset asthma among 371 adults with allergic rhinitis who were followed up for 10 years.

PAPER: Greater severity of new onset asthma in allergic subjects who smoke: a 10-year longitudinal study, Riccardo Polosa (polosa@unict.it), Cristina Russo, Pasquale Caponnetto, Gaetano Bertino1, Maria Sarvà, Tjana Antic, Stefania Mancuso and Wael K Al-Delaimy, Respiratory Research 2011, 12:16, ABSTRACT/FULL TEXT..

The researchers also found that smokers with asthma had a greater risk for uncontrolled disease than non-smokers who developed the respiratory condition. For example, patients with 1-10 and more than 10 pack-years of smoking were a respective 5.51 and 13.38 times more likely to have uncontrolled asthma than those who had never smoked.

Polosa et al conclude: "Smoking status and smoking duration were markedly related in a dose-dependent fashion to the level of asthma severity and to poor asthma control. They add: "The demonstration of strong association and clear-cut dose-response relationship of smoking with asthma severity and control is in support of causality."

Reference: Smoking linked to increased severity of new-onset asthma by Mark Cowen, 2/14/2011.