Chronic bronchitis in West Sweden – a matter of smoking and social class

Abstract

The prevalence of chronic bronchitis was somewhat lower than found by studies in Sweden in the 1980s and the prevalence was now similar in men and women. Although smoking was still the dominating risk factor for chronic bronchitis, the relative importance of smoking had decreased parallel with a decreasing smoking prevalence, while the relative importance of other factors than smoking had increased compared to previous studies.