Industrial population survey on the importance of chronic bronchitis and asthma-like symptoms in airflow obstruction
Jedrychowski, W.A.
Zeitschrift für Erkrankungen der Atmungsorgane 166(2): 194-199
1986
ISSN/ISBN: 0303-657X PMID: 3487179 Document Number: 274216
The report includes a description of the prevalence of chronic bronchitis and asthma-like symptoms in the industrial population in an attempt to study the relationship between these two syndromes and airflow obstruction. The data were derived from the cross-sectional study performed in 4,717 male workers employed in the chemical industrial complex situated near Cracow, Poland. It was observed that the prevalence of asthma-like symptoms in the population under study was unexpectedly higher than that of chronic bronchitis. The results confirmed that there was no cause-effect relationship between productive cough and airflow obstruction but it was shown that asthma-like syndrome increased the risk of airflow obstruction. The supposed strong biologic impact of asthma-like symptoms on airflow obstruction should draw an attention to this syndrome in the occupational epidemiology of chronic chest diseases.