High Prevalence of Asthma Symptoms in the Canary Islands: Climatic Influence?

Abstract

The worldwide variation in asthma prevalence prompted us to carry out a study to assess the variability of asthma-related symptoms in young adults on the islands of Gran Canaria and Tenerife. We used the questionnaire used in the European Community Respiratory Health Survey with the addition of two questions on smoking and ancestors from the Canary Islands. In each island, this questionnaire was distributed to a random sample of 5000 subjects aged 20 -44 years. Of the 10,000 subjects, 9,506 (95.06%) were considered eligible. We obtained 7,132 (75.03%) responses. The prevalence of the different symptoms was wheezing 25.3%, nocturnal thoracic tightness 18.0%, awakened by an attack of shortness of breath 13.1%, attack of nocturnal coughing 33.3%, attack of asthma 4.3%, current asthma treatment 6.2%, and nasal allergies 18.0%. Women and smokers showed a significantly higher prevalence of asthma symptoms. No significant difference in symptoms was found between subjects whose ancestors were of Canarian origin and those with ancestors born outside the Canaries. As has been observed on other islands (Great Britain and New Zealand), asthma is common in individuals from 20 to 44 years of age in the Canaries. We hypothesize that climatic conditions play an important role in the prevalence of asthma symptoms.

Influences of meteorological parameters and biological and chemical air pollutants on the incidence of asthma and rhinitis

“…Bucher & Haase (1993) describe and critically discuss causal correlations between conditions in the lower atmosphere and reactions of the human organism, but also the combined or synergistic effects of different weather situations. The effects of meteorological factors (Schlink et al 2002), climate conditions (Serda et al 2005), including air temperature and absolute humidity (Kotaniemi et al 2002, Avino et al 2004, Nastos & Matzarakis 2006, wind parameters (Avino et al 2004) and weather types , as well as geographical factors (Kurt et al 2007) and chemical air pollutants (Schlink et al 2002, Lee et al 2003, Avino et al 2004, Heinrich et al 2005, influence the risk of respiratory symptoms. Furthermore, there is considerable evidence to suggest that climate change impacts on aeroallergens.…”