You are here

Article Text

Article menu

Download PDFPDF

XML
Epidemiology
Research
Physical activity and incident asthma in adults: the HUNT Study, Norway
  1. Ben M Brumpton1,2,3,
  2. Arnulf Langhammer1,
  3. Manuel A R Ferreira2,
  4. Yue Chen4,
  5. Xiao-Mei Mai1
  1. 1Faculty of Medicine, Department of Public Health and General Practice, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, NTNU, Trondheim, Norway
  2. 2QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia
  3. 3Department of Thoracic and Occupational Medicine, St. Olavs Hospital, Trondheim University Hospital, Trondheim, Norway
  4. 4Faculty of Medicine, School of Epidemiology, Public Health and Preventive Medicine, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Ottawa, Canada
  1. Correspondence to Dr Ben M Brumpton; ben.brumpton{at}ntnu.no

Abstract

Objective We aimed to investigate the associations of physical activity and change in physical activity with incident asthma in a cohort of Norwegian adults.

Design We conducted a prospective cohort study using data on self-reported physical activity from 3 waves of the Nord-Trøndelag Health Study. Physical activity was reported at the first and second surveys (1985–1986 and 1995–1997). Physical activity was defined from the second survey as inactive or active and the active group was further defined as very low, low, moderate and high. Change in physical activity was defined from the first and second surveys.

Setting A large population-based health survey in Norway.

Participants We followed 18 894 adults over 11 years who were free from asthma at baseline in 1995–1997.

Outcome Incident asthma was reported in the third survey (2006–2008).

Results The cumulative incidence of asthma was 3.6% over the 11 years. The adjusted OR for incident asthma among active participants compared with inactive participants was 0.95 (95% CI 0.69 to 1.34). The adjusted OR for those who were active in the first or second survey versus those who were inactive in both surveys was 0.64 (95% CI 0.34 to 1.38); however, this association was strongly attenuated in sensitivity analysis (OR 0.93, 95% CI 0.38 to 3.09).

Conclusions We did not observe statistically significant associations of physical activity or change in physical activity with incident asthma in adults over the 11-year follow-up.

  • EPIDEMIOLOGY
  • PUBLIC HEALTH

This is an Open Access article distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/

https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2016-013856

Statistics from Altmetric.com

    Request Permissions

    If you wish to reuse any or all of this article please use the link below which will take you to the Copyright Clearance Center’s RightsLink service. You will be able to get a quick price and instant permission to reuse the content in many different ways.

    View Full Text

    Footnotes

    • Contributors BMB and X-MM conceived and designed the study. AL and BMB acquired the samples and analysed the data. BMB, AL, MARF, YC and X-MM interpreted the data. BMB drafted the manuscript. BMB, AL, MARF, YC and X-MM wrote and revised the manuscript. BMB is accountable for the accuracy and integrity of all parts of the work. BMB, AL, MARF, YC and X-MM read and approved the final manuscript to be published.

    • Funding This work was supported by the Liaison Committee between the Central Norway Regional Health Authority and the Norwegian University of Science and Technology.

    • Competing interests BMB reported having received funding support from the Central Norway Regional Health Authority and the Norwegian University of Science and Technology.

    • Ethics approval The Regional Committee for Medical Research Ethics, Norway (2014/102/REK midt).

    • Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.

    • Data sharing statement No additional data are available.