Association of alcohol use with olfactory function among older adults

Background/purpose: Olfactory dysfunction (OD) has been recognized as an early biomarker for neurodegenerative diseases. Identifying behaviors that increase the risk of OD is crucial for early recognition of neurogenerative diseases. Alcohol consumption can potentially impact olfaction through its neurotoxic effects. This study aims to examine the relationship between alcohol consumption and OD, using data from the National Social Life, Health, and Aging Project (NSHAP). Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted on data for 2757 adults from Round 1 of NSHAP. OD was defined as correctly identifying 0-3 odors in the 5-item Sniffin' Sticks test while normal olfactory function was defined as correctly identifying 4-5 odors. Multivariable logistic regression was utilized to examine the association between alcohol consumption and OD, controlling for age, race, and comorbidities. Analyses were weighted to account for the sampling design. Results: OD was present in 23.1 % of adults. The average age among those with OD was 71.2 ± 7.8 years, compared to 66.9 ± 7.2 years in those with normal olfaction. In terms of alcohol consumption, 31.1 % of adults with OD were light-to-moderate drinkers and 7.7 % were heavy drinkers, compared to 35.6 % light-to-moderate and 7.7 % heavy drinkers in the normal olfaction group. After adjusting for age, gender, race, and education, neither light-to-moderate drinking (aOR: 0.99; 95 % CI: 0.76-1.29) nor heavy drinking (aOR: 1.24; 95 % CI: 0.83-1.85) were significantly associated with OD. Conclusion: Alcohol consumption was not associated with OD after controlling for covariates. While this study provides insight into the relationship between alcohol consumption and OD, further research is needed due to conflicting results in previous studies.</p

Airway Neutrophil Inflammatory Phenotype In Older Asthma Subjects

The airway inflammation in older asthma subjects has parallels to the airway inflammation in neutrophil-predominant severe asthma. This raises the question of whether the clinical features will exhibit additional similarities

Social Determinants of Health in Asthma Through the Life Course

There is strong evidence supporting the influence of social determinants of health (SDOH) on the development and progression of asthma. SDOH are defined as conditions in which people are born, grow up, live, work, and age, which influence their opportunity to be healthy, risk of illness, and life expectancy. The goal of this article was to describe 2 case-based approaches (pediatric and adult) to assessing and addressing SDOH in asthma across the life course and in community settings. As asthma providers and specialists, the role of SDOH is complex in our clinical care; however, it is critical to address social needs identified through clinical care for our patients with asthma. Clinical-community partnerships, through grant and cost-sharing mechanisms with resource agencies, are necessary to ameliorate social needs for patients and their communities and have the potential to improve asthma outcomes. Although this is a unique and exciting time in health care to promote individual and population health, knowledge gaps remain, including best practices to integrate holistic SDOH care into the care of patients with asthma

Associations of urban greenness with asthma and respiratory symptoms in Mexican American children

Asthma is one of the most common childhood chronic conditions with approximately 19 million adults and seven million children affected in the United States alone. 1 The etiology of asthma and other allergic conditions is not fully understood, but environmental and lifestyle factors have been implicated in the inception of these conditions. In the United States, the prevalence of asthma and asthma related symptoms is disproportionately high in urban poor neighborhoods.2-4 Although this might be due partly to sociodemographic factors, studies have suggested that urbanization and its detrimental impact on the natural environment and lifestyle might increase the risk of respiratory conditions.3-6 In fact, children raised or born on a farm or in rural areas have a reduced risk of respiratory conditions.7-10 Recently, there has been an increased emphasis on the effect of residential surrounding greenness on the risk of respiratory conditions. However, studies linking urban greenness and vegetation with respiratory health are limited and have yielded inconsistent findings.11 While some studies linked greenness with increased risk of asthma and adverse respiratory conditions,12-15 other investigations failed to demonstrate a clear association between greenness and childhood respiratory health.16,17 A few studies, however, have demonstrated protective effects of urban greenness on the risk of allergies and respiratory conditions.18-20 It has been speculated that increased urban greenness may protect against respiratory conditions through its positive impact on environmental biodiversity21,22 and subsequently the human microbiome.22,23 Recent research has shown variations in outdoor urban microbiome due to differences in surrounding vegetation23 and there is an increasing body of literature linking the microbiome with allergic conditions.24 Increased access to urban residential greenness has also been linked with increased physical activity, lower rates of overweight/obesity, reduced psychological stress, and better air quality;20,25 factors that have been linked with respiratory health.26-31 The limited evidence for 24 favorable effects of urban greenness on respiratory health suggests that the protective effect of greenness may be modified by individual and neighborhood characteristics, such as individual and neighborhood low socioeconomic status (SES).19,20 In this study, we examined the associations of residential surrounding greenness with respiratory conditions among an urban sample of Mexican American children and tested whether these associations were explained or modified by individual- and neighborhood-level factors known to contribute to the development of asthma

Income is an independent risk factor for worse asthma outcomes.

BACKGROUND: Socioeconomic status (SES) is associated with asthma morbidity in observational studies, but the factors underlying this association are uncertain. OBJECTIVE: We investigated whether 3 SES correlates-low income, low education, and high perceived stress-were independent risk factors for treatment failure and asthma exacerbations in the context of a randomized controlled trial. METHODS: The effect of low SES (household income of &lt;$50,000/y and household educational level of less than a Bachelors degree) and high perceived stress (defined as a score of &gt;20 on a perceived stress scale) on asthma morbidity was analyzed in 381 participants by using Poisson regression models. The primary outcome was treatment failure (defined in the trial protocol as a significant clinical or airflow deterioration), and the secondary outcome was asthma exacerbations requiring systemic corticosteroids. RESULTS: Fifty-four percent of participants had a low income, 40% had a low educational level, and 17% had high perceived stress levels. Even after adjusting for race and other important confounders, participants with lower income had higher rates of both treatment failures (rate ratio, 1.6; 95% CI, 1.1-2.3; P&nbsp;=&nbsp;.03) and exacerbations (rate ratio, 1.9; 95% CI, 1.1-3.3; P&nbsp;=&nbsp;.02). Adherence with inhaled corticosteroids was similarly high for both income categories. Education and perceived stress were not significantly associated with either outcome. CONCLUSIONS: In the context of a randomized controlled trial, participants with lower income were more likely to experience adverse asthma outcomes independent of education, perceived stress, race, and medication adherence