European Community Respiratory Health Survey III

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Asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) are major causes of ill-health in older people. Having asthma and allergy in early adult life may increase the risk of having COPD in later years. This is of concern for health planning because the proportion of the population with asthma and allergy is increasing. We have been studying about 10000 adults for twenty years, and we would like to study them again and assess their respiratory health. There are few studies in which so many people have been monitored over such a long period of time and had detailed measures of respiratory health and allergic status made more than 20 years ago. We will examine changes in study participants? health, assess the relationship of asthma and allergy with COPD and assess the importance of factors that may influence respiratory disease, such as obesity, physical exercise and diet.