A new study investigated risk factors for severe adult-onset asthma, including smoking, NSAID-exacerbated respiratory disease, and other contributors.

“Early detection of the risk factors contributing to severe adult-onset asthma is important to decrease morbidity and costs,” SannaToppila-Salmi,MD, PhD, researcher in the department of pathology at Haartman Institute at the University of Helsinki, Haartmanikatu, and the Skin and Allergy Hospital at the Hospital District of Helsinkin and Uusimaa at Helsinki University Hospital and the University of Helsinki, Finland, and colleagues wrote.

“Most previous results have focused on one or a few risk factors, although the phenotypes of asthma are multifactorial.”

The cross-sectional, population-based, case-controlled study used data from Finnish national registries to aggregate a sample of 1,350 patients with adult-onset asthma (mean age, 54.4 years; 62.1% women). Severe asthma was defined as self-reported severe asthma and symptoms, at least one oral corticosteroid course per year or regular oral corticosteroid use and sleep disruption due to symptoms or wheezing a few times per month.

Researchers selected 16 covariates that included personal characteristics, education, lifestyle, early-life factors, asthma characteristics and multiple morbidities to assess associations with severe asthma.

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