Cecilie Svanes

University of Bergen | UiB · Centre for International Health

BACKGROUND: Infections in early life are associated with asthma and allergies in one-generation settings; however, the link between parental infection and offspring phenotype is rarely investigated. We aim to study the association of parental TB before conception of the offspring with offspring asthma and rhinitis.METHODS: We included 2,965 offspri...

Background: While direct effects of occupational exposures on an individual's respiratory health are evident, a new paradigm is emerging on the possible effects of pre-conception occupational exposure on respiratory health in offspring. We aimed to study the association between parental occupational exposure starting before conception and asthma i...

Background The relationships between childhood wheeze phenotypes and subsequent allergic conditions other than asthma, including hayfever, eczema, and sensitization have not been widely reported. We aimed to investigate this relationship up to late adolescence. Methods Using five childhood wheeze phenotypes defined from 620 children in a high‐atop...

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1093/eep/dvz023.][This corrects the article DOI: 10.1093/eep/dvz023.].

Background: While acrylates are well-known skin sensitisers, they are not classified as respiratory sensitisers although several cases of acrylate-induced occupational asthma (OA) have been reported. Objectives: The aim of this study was to evaluate the characteristics of acrylate-induced OA in a large series of cases and compare those with OA i...

Epidemiological studies suggest that father’s smoking might influence their future children’s health, but few studies have addressed whether paternal line effects might be related to altered DNA methylation patterns in the offspring. To investigate a potential association between fathers’ smoking exposures and offspring DNA methylation using epigen...

Background: Glutathione S-transferase (GST) genes are involved in the management of oxidative stress in the lungs. We aimed to determine whether they modify the associations between early life smoke exposure and adverse lung health outcomes. Methods: The Melbourne Atopy Cohort study (a high-risk birth cohort) enrolled 620 children and followed t...

Background The EU H2020 funded Ageing Lungs in European Cohorts study (ALEC www.alecstudy.org) is a consortia of population-based birth and adult inception cohorts with repeated measures of spirometry several years apart. Using these data, ALEC aims to identify risk factors for spirometrically defined COPD, and to develop an online risk prediction...

Background The prevalence of asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) has risen markedly over the last decades and is reaching epidemic proportions. However, underlying molecular mechanisms are not fully understood, hampering the urgently needed development of approaches to prevent these diseases. It is well established from epidemio...

Background High‐molecular‐weight (HMW) proteins and low‐molecular‐weight (LMW) chemicals can cause occupational asthma (OA) although few studies have thoroughly compared the clinical, physiological, and inflammatory patterns associated with these different types of agents. The aim of this study was to determine whether OA induced by HMW and LMW age...

Background: Despite extensive knowledge of smoking effects on respiratory disease, there is no study including all age windows of exposure among ever smokers. The objective of this study was to assess the effects from smoking exposure in utero, early childhood, adolescence and adulthood on respiratory health outcomes in adult male and female ever...

Activity-related breathlessness is twice as common among females as males in the general population and is associated with adverse health outcomes. We tested whether this sex difference is explained by the lower absolute forced expiratory volume in 1 s (FEV 1 ) or forced vital capacity (FVC) in females. This was a cross-sectional analysis of 3250 s...

Table S1. Offspring phenotypes as reported by fathers and mothers. Table S2. Association between asthma severity and clinical markers and offspring asthma and hay fever only for parents who have one child born before and one child born after ECRHS I. Table S3. Association between parental asthma score, BHR, specific and total IgE and atopic statu...

Rationale: Evidence has suggested that exposure to environmental or microbial biodiversity in early life may impact subsequent lung function and allergic disease risk. Objectives: To investigate the influence of childhood living environment and biodiversity indicators on atopy, asthma and lung function in adulthood. Methods and measurements: T...

Objective: To investigate the impact of physical activity on asthma in middle-aged adults, in one longitudinal analysis, and one multi-centre cross-sectional analysis. Methods: The Respiratory Health in Northern Europe (RHINE) is a population based postal questionnaire cohort study. Physical activity, height and weight were self-reported in Bergen,...

Introduction: Asthma in women can deteriorate in specific phases during the menstrual cycle. Deterioration in the premenstrual phase (increase in symptoms or deterioration in peak flow measurements) is known as premenstrual asthma. The etiology remains mostly unknown. Areas covered: This paper systematically reviews risk factors for premenstrual a...

Background: It has been hypothesised that n-3 PUFA in breast-milk may assist immune and lung development. There are very limited data on possible long-term effects on allergic disease and lung function. The aim was to investigate associations of n-3 and n-6 PUFA levels in colostrum and breast milk with allergic disease and lung function at ages 12...

Aim: Diet might modulate lung function decline. We assessed the relationship between baseline dietary intake and 13 year lung function decline in European adults. Methods: In 2000, adults from Norway, Germany and the UK, from the European Community Respiratory Health Survey (ECRHS) answered questions on respiratory health, and had the following spi...

Welding-related asthma is well recognised but less is known about rhinitis in relation to welding. The aim here, was to study associations between welding, rhinitis and asthma in a general population sample, and factors influencing selection into and out of a welding occupation.Adult-onset asthma and non-infectious rhinitis were investigated in the...

We compared risk factors and clinical characteristics, 9-year lung function change and hospitalisation risk across subjects with the asthma-chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) overlap syndrome (ACOS), asthma or COPD alone, or none of these diseases.Participants in the European Community Respiratory Health Survey in 1991-1993 (aged 20-44 ye...

Dampness and mould exposure have been repeatedly associated with respiratory health. However, less is known about the specific agents provoking or arresting health effects in adult populations. We aimed to assess predictors of microbial agents in mattress dust throughout Europe and to investigate associations between microbial exposures, home chara...

A number of genetic variants have been associated with allergic sensitisation, but whether these are allergen-specific or increase susceptibility to poly-sensitisation is unknown. Using data from the large multicentre population-based European Community Respiratory Health Survey, we assessed the association between 10 loci and specific IgE and skin...

The aim of the present study was to analyse the interaction between asthma and smoking in the risk of adult airway obstruction, accounting for atopy. In the European Community Respiratory Health Survey, 15 668 persons aged 20-56 years underwent spirometry in 1991-1993 and 9 years later (n = 8916). Risk of airway obstruction and lung function declin...

Psychological factors such as anxiety and depression are prevalent in patients with asthma. The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between respiratory symptoms and psychological status and to estimate the importance of psychological status in comparison with other factors that are known to be associated with respiratory sympt...

Exposure to house dust has been associated with asthma in adults, and this is commonly interpreted as a direct immunological response to dust mite allergens in those who are IgE sensitised to house dust mite. Mattress house dust mite concentrations were measured in a population based sample of 2890 adults aged between 27 and 56 years living in 22 c...

Background: The two inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD), ulcerative colitis and Crohn's disease, has increased rapidly during the twentieth century, but the aetiology is still poorly understood. Impaired immunological competence due to decreasing biodiversity and altered microbial stimulation is a suggested explanation. Objective: Place of upbring...

Rationale: Better characterization of childhood wheeze phenotypes using newer statistical methods provides a basis for addressing the heterogeneity of childhood asthma. Outcomes of these phenotypes beyond childhood are unknown. Objectives: To determine if adolescent respiratory symptoms, lung function, and changes in lung function over adolescen...

Selection bias is a systematic error in epidemiologic studies that may seriously distort true measures of associations between exposure and disease. Observational studies are highly susceptible to selection bias, and researchers should therefore always examine to what extent selection bias may be present in their material and what characterizes the...

To define longitudinal childhood wheeze phenotypes and identify their early-life risk factors. Current wheeze was recorded 23 times up to age 7 years in a birth cohort at high risk for allergy (n = 620). Latent class analysis of wheeze responses identified 5 classes. Multinomial logistic regression estimated associations of probability-weighted whe...

Background: Evidence on the longitudinal association of airway responsiveness with respiratory diseases is scarce. The best indicator of responsiveness is still undetermined. Objective: We investigated the association of airway responsiveness with the incidence of asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), and allergic rhinitis. Meth...

No large study has described seasonal variation in asthma attacks in population based asthmatics in whom sensitisation to allergen has been measured.2,637 young adults with asthma living in 15 countries reported months in which they usually had attacks of asthma and had skin prick tests performed. Differences in seasonal patterns by sensitisation s...

Objectives: To study new onset of adult asthma in relation to dampness and moulds in dwelling places. Methods: Totally, 7104 young adults from 13 countries who participated in the European Community Respiratory Health Survey (ECRHS I and II) who did not report respiratory symptoms or asthma at baseline were followed prospectively for 9 years. As...

Objectives: In a large population-based study among adults in northern Europe the relation between occupational exposure and new-onset asthma was studied. Methods: The study comprised 13 284 subjects born between 1945 and 1973, who answered a questionnaire 1989–1992 and again 1999–2001. Asthma was defined as ‘Asthma diagnosed by a physician’ with...

Rationale: There is little knowledge of variations in respiratory symptoms during the menstrual cycle in a general population, and potential modifying factors are not investigated. Objectives: To investigate menstrual cycle variation in respiratory symptoms in a large general population, using chronobiology methodology, and stratifying by body m...

The European Community Respiratory Health Survey is an international multicenter cohort study of asthma, allergy, and lung function that began in the early-1990s with recruitment of population-based samples of 20- to 44-year-old adults, mainly in Europe. The aims of the study are broad ranging but include assessment of the role of in utero exposure...

Gender differences in respiratory health have, in recent years, been the focus of considerable scientific effort. This paper reviews recent literature on respiratory health in women in relation to age at menarche, menstrual cycle, irregular menstruation, polycystic ovarian syndrome, menopause and exogenous sex hormones. This literature provides sub...

Although women with severe non-allergic asthma may represent a substantial proportion of adults with asthma in clinical practice, gender differences in the incidence of allergic and non-allergic asthma have been little investigated in the general population. Gender differences in asthma prevalence, reported diagnosis and incidence were investigated...

To investigate the prevalence and incidence rate of chronic bronchitis (CB) in relation to smoking habits and exposure to welding fumes in a general population sample. Subjects from Northern Europe born between 1945 and 1971 who participated in Stage 1 (1989-1994) of the European Community Respiratory Health Survey were mailed a respiratory questio...

Cat exposure during childhood has been shown to increase the risk of developing cat sensitization, while the effect of cat exposure in adulthood has not yet been established. To evaluate new-onset sensitization to cat in adulthood in relation to changes in cat keeping. A total of 6292 European Community Respiratory Health Survey I (ECRHS I) partici...

Exposure to endotoxin has been associated with increased respiratory symptoms and decrements in lung function in occupational settings but little is known about the health effects of domestic exposure in adults. Here, we describe the association of respiratory disease, immunoglobulin (Ig)E sensitisation, bronchial reactivity and lung function with...

Rhinitis is an increasingly common condition with a heavy health care burden, but relatively little is known about its risk factors. To examine the association between early-life factors and the development of rhinitis in the European Community Respiratory Health Study (ECRHS). In 1992-1994, community-based samples of 20-44-year-old people were rec...

There are few longitudinal studies that have examined the association of lung function decline with indoor mould and dampness. Lung function decline in relation to dampness and mould in the home has studied in adults over a 9 year period. Spirometry was performed twice in participants in the European Respiratory Health Survey (ECRHS I and II) who w...

hormonal and metabolic status appears to influence lung health in women, and there are findings suggesting that early menarche may be related to asthma, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and breast cancer. this study investigates whether age at menarche is related to adult lung function and asthma. among participants in the European Community Respi...

Few studies have investigated the factors associated with the early inception of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). We investigated COPD risk factors in an international cohort of young adults using different spirometric definitions of the disease. Methods: We studied 4,636 subjects without asthma who had prebronchodilator FEV(1)/FVC mea...

Respiratory symptoms are common in the general population, and their presence is related to Health-related quality of life (HRQoL). The objective was to describe the association of respiratory symptoms with HRQoL in subjects with and without asthma or COPD and to investigate the role of atopy, bronchial hyperresponsiveness (BHR), and lung function...

The occurrence of new-onset asthma during adulthood is common, but there is insufficient understanding of its determinants including the role of atopy. To assess the risk factors for the development of new-onset asthma in middle-aged adults and to compare them according to atopy. A longitudinal analysis of 9175 young adults who participated in two...

The aim of this study was to compare female and male asthmatics with special emphasis on reported adherence, anxiety, and quality of sleep. The study included 470 subjects with current asthma from the Nordic countries, who took part in the European Community Respiratory Health Survey (ECRHS) II. Subjects were investigated with a structured clinical...

Asthma guidelines from the Global Initiative for Asthma (GINA) and from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute provide conflicting definitions of airflow obstruction, suggesting a fixed forced expiratory volume in 1 s (FEV(1))/forced vital capacity (FVC) cut-off point and the lower limit of normality (LLN), respectively. The LLN was recommen...

Professional use of hypochlorite (bleach) has been associated with respiratory symptoms. Bleach is capable of inactivating allergens, and there are indications that its domestic use may reduce the risk of allergies in children. To study the associations between household use of bleach and atopic sensitization, allergic diseases, and respiratory hea...

Early life development may influence subsequent respiratory morbidity. The impact of factors determined in childhood on adult lung function, decline in lung function and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) was investigated. European Community Respiratory Health Survey participants aged 20-45 years randomly selected from general populations...

Little is known about the long-term outcomes of individuals with mild/moderate chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) according to spirometric criteria. To test whether nonsmokers and asymptomatic subjects with a spirometric diagnosis of COPD have a steeper decrease in lung function and higher hospitalization rates than subjects without airwa...

Emerging evidence suggests that sex steroid hormones may influence airways obstruction, and that metabolic status may modify potential effects. This study investigated the association between use of oral contraceptive pills (OCPs) and asthma in a Nordic-Baltic population-based study, while taking into account possible interplay with body mass index...

To investigate the variability and determinants of menopause age in two European cohort studies, the European Respiratory Health Survey and the Swiss Air Pollution and Lung Disease in Adults Cohort. Age at menopause was estimated in 5,288 women, aged 30 to 60 years, randomly selected in nine European countries between 1998 and 2002. Determinants of...

The aim of the present study was to examine the influence of childhood respiratory infections on adult respiratory health. In 1992-1994, the European Community Respiratory Health Survey recruited community based samples of 20-44-yr-old people from 48 centres in 22 countries. Study participants completed questionnaires and underwent lung function te...

Few studies investigate how environmental factors in childhood may influence adult respiratory health. The European Community Respiratory Health Survey (ECRHS) is a longitudinal multi‐centre study of Western world adults, including retrospective assessment of early life factors. Analyses of the ECRHS showed both beneficial and harmful long‐term eff...

Object: The international population-based studies RHINE and ECRHS have provided new insight in the epidemiology and management of asthma, allergy and rhinitis in young adults. The aim of the present review is to focus on longitudinal results with regard incidence and net change of asthma and asthma-like symptoms, risk factors and management of ast...

Sex hormones appear to play an important role in the lung health of women. This is, however, poorly understood and, in most aspects, poorly investigated; and the literature has been contradictory and confusing. This review presents recent research concerning the involvement of sex hormones in respiratory health of adult women, using the population...

Background To our knowledge, no studies of the possible association of early life environment with snoring in adulthood have been published. We aimed to investigate whether early life environment is associated with snoring later in life. Methods A questionnaire including snoring frequency in adulthood and environmental factors in early life was ob...

Early detection of airflow obstruction is particularly important among young adults because they are more likely to benefit from intervention. Using the forced expiratory volume in 1 s (FEV(1)) to forced vital capacity (FVC) (FEV(1)/FVC) <70% fixed ratio, airflow obstruction may be underdiagnosed. The lower limit of normal (LLN), which is statistic...