Middle-aged men with asthma since youth: the impact of work on asthma.

OBJECTIVES: To evaluate current occupational exposure and its associations with asthma control, exacerbations, and severity in middle-aged men with asthma from youth. METHODS: We used the Finnish Defence Force registers, 1986 to 1990, to select conscripts with asthma to represent mild or moderate asthmatic group (asthma group 1; N = 505), men who were exempted from military service to represent relatively severe asthmatic group (asthma group 2; N = 393), and a control group without asthma (N = 1500). A questionnaire was sent out in 2009. RESULTS: The current self-reported or expert-evaluated exposure to asthma-aggravating factors differed only slightly between the asthmatic groups and the controls. In asthma group 2, being a manual worker or self-employed (odds ratio, 4.5; 95% confidence interval, 1.2 to 16.3) significantly associated with asthma exacerbations. CONCLUSIONS: Current work may associate with the asthma outcome of middle-aged men with relatively severe asthma in their youth.