Current asthma contributes as much as smoking to chronic bronchitis in middle age: a prospective population-based study

Abstract

The strong independent association between current asthma and CB in middle age suggests that this condition may be even more influential than personal smoking in a general population. The independent associations of childhood allergy and asthma, though not childhood bronchitis, as clinical predictors of adult CB raise the possibility of some of this burden having originated in childhood.