News Release

American Thoracic Society Journal news tips for September--first issue

Peer-Reviewed Publication

American Thoracic Society

CAT OWNERSHIP PROTECTIVE AGAINST ASTHMA

In three Swedish communities where cat sensitization was strongly associated with asthma, owning a cat provided a significant protective effect for children against the disease. The researchers studied over 3,000 7- and 8-year-old boys and girls in communities in Northern Sweden over three years. They wanted to determine what effect living with a dog or cat had on the development of asthma or allergy. A number of studies have established a strong association between asthma and immediate hypersensitivity to certain specific allergens, including those from dust mites, cockroaches, and animal danders. The communities studied were located at the Arctic Circle in a cold, dry climate in which there were no dust mites or cockroaches. Consequently, the towns were ideal locations for the investigators to study the effects of exposure to domestic animal allergens. Over the three-year period, the cumulative incidence of "ever asthma" was 4.1 percent, and of wheezing in the last 12 months 8.3 percent. At the start of the study, children who were reported by their parents as having asthma, physician-diagnosed asthma, or wheezing within the last 12 months were excluded from the population at risk. The data showed that having a cat at home provided a significant protective effect against incident cases of physician-diagnosed asthma. For children with a family history of the disease, owning a cat provided a significant protective effect against not only physician-diagnosed asthma, but also "ever asthma." The study appears in the first issue for September 2002 of the American Thoracic Society's peer-reviewed American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine.

CONTINUING SMOKERS SHOW STRIKINGLY LOWER LUNG FUNCTION LEVELS

In a re-examination 11 years later of the participants from the Lung Health Study, a substantial number of those involved who had continued to smoke showed levels of lung function believed to represent either moderate or severe chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). The investigators retested the lung function levels, using spirometry, of 4,517 enrollees (77.4 percent) out of the original 5,887 participants. The patients also provided answers to a questionnaire on smoking in the follow-up research called by investigators "Lung Health Study 3." The original study contained smokers with mild to moderate lung impairment. Its aim was to see whether a program incorporating smoking intervention and the prescription of an inhaled bronchodilator could prevent or delay the onset of clinically apparent COPD. In the original study, participants were placed randomly in one of three groups: smoking intervention plus a drug inhaler; smoking intervention plus placebo inhaler; and usual care. Analysis revealed that smoking cessation reduced the rate of decline in lung function, but the inhaled bronchodilator did not. In the original smoking intervention groups, over 21 percent of the participants achieved long-term smoking cessation success, versus 5.4 percent of the usual care group. At the Lung Health Study 3 visit 11 years later, 16.7 percent of the participants were sustained quitters, 57.4 were intermittent smokers, and 26.9 percent had been smoking continuously since the start of the original study. Among the continuing smokers, 18.1 percent had lung function values of less than 50 percent of the predicted normal level, as compared with only 3.3 percent of the sustained quitters. Thirty-eight percent of the continuing smoker group had a lung function values less than 60 percent of the predicted normal, as compared with 10 percent of the quitters' group. The lower lung function levels were thought to represent severe to moderate COPD, and were largely made up of participants who continued to smoke. The study appears in the first issue for September 2002 of the American Thoracic Society's peer-reviewed American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine.

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For the complete text of these articles, please see the American Thoracic Society Online Web Site at www.atsjournals.org. For contact information or to request a complimentary journalist subscription to ATS journals online, or if you would like to add your name to the Society's twice monthly journal news mailing list (please select either postal or electronic delivery), contact Cathy Carlomagno at (212) 315-6442, or by e-mail at ccarlomagno@thoracic.org


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