Chest
Introducing New Members of the Editorial Board Clinical InvestigationRelationships Between Pulmonary Function and Changes in Chronic Respiratory Symptoms: Comparison of Tucson and Cracow Longitudinal Studies
Section snippets
Material and Methods
The detailed descriptions of the two studies and their methodologies have been provided previously.11, 12, 13, 14, 15 Briefly, the Cracow study was a random sample of adults aged 19 to 70 years in 1968. Standard questionnaires (derived from the BMRC respiratory questionnaire) were administered to 4,355 subjects and spirometric results (Vitalograph) were obtained on 3,047 subjects.11 The population was resurveyed in 1973 and again in 1981, using the same instruments. During the final (1981)
Characteristics of the Analyzed Groups
The Tucson and Cracow analyzed groups differed markedly with respect to age and smoking habits (Table 1). The Tucson sample was stratified according to age,13 while the age structure of the Cracow sample was representative for the Cracow population.11 As a result, the proportion of subjects aged 51 to 70 years was much greater in Tucson (31.7 percent of men analyzed here and 50.2 percent women) than in the Cracow group (21.0 percent and 21.8 percent, respectively). The proportion of men smoking
Discussion
This analysis shows that a number of associations between pulmonary function and symptoms are similar in different populations. These consistencies indicate that the relationships found in both studies are not due to chance and represent part of natural history of airflow obstruction.
The results of analysis of FEV1 levels and slopes were the most consistent for the symptoms of the “asthmatic” type, ie, for wheeze, attacks of breathlessness, and diagnosed asthma. In general, subjects with such
Acknowledgment
The Tucson study was supported by NHLBI SCOR grant No. HL14136. The Cracow Study was supported in part by grant P-05-109-N from NIHLB. Professors M.J. Wysocki, M.D., and W. Jedrychowski, M.D., were main contributors to the latter study. The first author (M.K.) was the recipient of International Fogarty Fellowship, grant No. 1-F05-TW03940
References (31)
Respiratory symptoms and pulmonary function as predictors of 10-year mortality from respiratory disease, cardiovascular disease, and all causes in the Whitehall Study
J Clin Epidemiol
(1988)- et al.
Respiratory symptoms as predictors of 27 year mortality in a representative sample of British adults
Br Med J
(1989) - et al.
The relevance in adults of air-flow obstruction, but not of mucus hypersecretion, to mortality from chronic lung disease
Am Rev Respir Dis
(1983) - et al.
Is respiratory mucus hypersecretion really an innocent disorder?
Am Rev Respir Dis
(1986) - et al.
Respiratory symptoms, lung function, and mortality in a screening center cohort
Am J Epidemiol
(1989) - et al.
Respiratory symptoms and FEV1 as predictors of hospitalization and medication in the following 12 years due to respiratory disease
Eur Respir J
(1989) - et al.
The natural history of chronic bronchitis and emphysema: an eight-year study of early chronic obstructive lung disease in working men in London
New York, NY: Oxford University Press
(1976) - et al.
An index of risk for obstructive airways disease
Am Rev Respir Dis
(1982) - et al.
Twelve years of spirometric changes among Paris area workers
Int J Epidemiol
(1979) - et al.
Are chronic wheezing and asthma-like attacks related to FEV1 decline? the Cracow study
Eur J Epidemiol
(1988)
Chronic nonspecific respiratory diseases in Cracow
Epidemiol Rev
Factors associated with the change in ventilatory function and the development of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease in a 13-year follow up of the Cracow study
Am Rev Respir Dis
Tucson epidemiologic study of obstructive lung diseases, I: methodology and prevalence of disease
Am J Epidemiol
Longitudinal changes in FEV1 in adults: methodological considerations and findings in healthy non-smokers
Am Rev Respir Dis
Longitudinal changes in forced expiratory volume in one second in adults: effects of smoking and smoking cessation
Am Rev Respir Dis
Cited by (0)
Manuscript received May 1; revision accepted December 12, 1989.