Socio-economic status plays role in asthma and respiratory symptoms

Reported by Susan Aldridge, PhD, medical journalist

Lower socio-economic status is a risk factor for asthma and other lung diseases, according to Swedish scientists.
Allergy was once considered to be an 'upper class' disease. And there is still a body of thought that suggests asthma might be a result of high socio-economic status. Those brought up in comfortable, uncrowded surroundings have immune systems that are not often challenged and so may tend to over-react to harmless stimuli. However, researchers at the Karolinska Institute, Sweden, now present a different take on socioeconomic status, asthma and respiratory symptoms.

They carried out a ten year prospective study using occupational title as a marker for socio-economic status. This showed that manual workers in industry and service were twice as likely to develop asthma or respiratory symptoms as those in the professional groups. Indeed, the researchers think that as many as ten per cent of cases of asthma or respiratory symptoms might be accounted for by low socio-economic status. This relationship is independent of other factors like smoking, gender and occupational exposures. Further studies are needed now to explain how socio-economic status exerts this effect upon lung health.

Source
European Respiratory Journal August 2006

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