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Notes: Background: The importance of total serum IgE level on lung function impairment has not been established in a general population.Objective: The aim of this cross-sectional community study was to examine the relationship between total serum IgE and level of lung function in adults, and whether this relationship differed by sex, age, smoking habits or by respiratory symptom and disease status.Methods: A stratified random sample of 18–73 year old adults from the general population were invited to spirometry and serum analyses of total and specific IgE. Of 1512 subjects invited, 82% met and performed complete examinations.Results: Increasing level of total serum IgE was related to reduced lung function (P〈0.01) given as sex, age, and height standardized residuals of one second forced expiratory volume (SFEV1). Subjects with total serum IgE in the highest vs the lowest tertile had a mean SFEV1 of -0.58 vs -0.28, corresponding to age and height adjusted FEV1 differences of 120 and 150mL in women and men, respectively. The relationship between IgE and lung function impairment did not differ significantly by sex, age or smoking habits. In subjects with obstructive’lung disease increasing level of total serum IgE was more negatively associated with lung function level than in subjects with respiratory symptoms alone. No relationship was observed in a symptomatic subjects. This was confirmed in a multiple linear regression analysis adjusting for sex, age, smoking habits and lifetime smoking consumption showing that SFEV1 was predicted by an interaction between total serum IgE level and symptom and disease status (P 〈 0.01). This interaction remained after excluding subjects (n= 105) having specific IgE antibodies.Conclusion: Increasing total serum IgE level was associated with progressively lower lung function in a general adult population after taking other predictors of impaired Spiro metric lung function into account, though dependent on the subjects’respiratory symptom and disease status. Variation in prevalences of respiratory symptoms and obstructive lung disease in previous examined populations may thus explain conflicting observations of the association between total IgE and airflow impairment.

Notes: Background Atopic women tend to have fewer children, although atopy may favour conception.Objective To assess whether atopy is associated with the number of new births and whether changes in parity are associated with a change in atopy in a cohort of young women.Methods Women had atopy (defined as the presence of serum-specific IgE against common aeroallergens) measured in the European Community Respiratory Health Study during the years 1991–92 (n=4580). About 9 years later, 2844 (62.1%) were recontacted and 2414 (52.7%) had atopy measured again.Results Atopic women had fewer children at baseline than non-atopic women but the association disappeared at the end of the follow-up. Atopy tended to increase parity during the follow-up, but in a non-statistically significant way (relative risk=1.08; 0.86–1.35, after adjusting for number of children at baseline, age, length of follow-up, education or social class). Prevalence of atopy during the follow-up changed by the same magnitude whatever the birth cohort and the change in the number of children (P for interaction 〉0.7).Conclusion Atopic women did not have a significantly higher fertility rate but they may postpone having their first child compared with non-atopic women. We are unable to confirm the hypothesis that atopy in women may decrease with successive pregnancies.

Notes: Background There is evidence that atopic disorders may begin in intra-uterine life; however, studies of birth characteristics and atopy show conflicting results.Methods We wanted to investigate the association of birth weight and head circumference with serum total or specific IgE, allergic rhinitis or eczema while addressing the influence of demographic and geographical factors. In this historic prospective cohort study, data were collected from birth records for 1683 men and women born in 1947–1973, from six Nordic–Baltic populations participating in the European Community Respiratory Health Survey. Blood tests for the measurement of serum total and specific IgE were available for 1494 subjects. In multiple regression analyses, adjustments were made for birth length, gender, age, study centre, adult body mass index, level of education, parental and adult smoking.Results There was no association of birth weight (n=1230) and head circumference (n=285) with serum total IgE, specific IgE antibodies, allergic rhinitis or eczema. There were neither significant interactions by gender or age, nor heterogeneity between the study centres in the analyses of birth weight and adult atopy.Conclusion Birth size was not associated with atopy among adults in this large Nordic–Baltic population study.

Notes: Abstract. We studied total and specific serum IgE levels cross-sectionally, potential predictors of obstructive lung disease, in a stratified random sample of 18–73-year-old adults (n= 1512). The attendance rate was 84%. The total IgE level and prevalences of specific IgE antibodies against house dust mite and cat were higher for men than for women. Specific IgE levels decreased by increasing age, while total IgE decreased in women only. Smokers had a higher IgE level than non-smokers, while non-smokers had more often specific IgE antibodies against timothy and birch than smokers. Subjects with occupational dust or gas exposure had a higher total IgE level than unexposcd. The general population prevalences were for specific IgE antibodies against timothy 4.5%, house dust mite 3.2%, birch 2.6%, cat dander 1.6% mould 0.2% and against any of these 7-6%. In a multivariate analysis age, occupational dust or gas exposure as well as the interaction terms between sex and age and between smoking and paek-years were independent predictors for total IgE levels. Male sex, young age, never having smoked and the season of the year were independent predictors for having one or more of the five specific IgE antibodies. Subjects with total serum IgE in the highest quintile (≥66 kU/1) had an adjusted odds ratio of 37 (95% confidence interval: 11–120) for having one or more of the specific IgE antibodies examined, compared with those in the lowest quintile (〈 5 kU/1). Demographic and environmental factors were thus predictors of total and specific IgE levels in this adult community. These factors should be taken into account when examining relationships between IgE levels, markers of allergy and inflammation, and airways disease.