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Urban vs. Rural Factors That Affect Adult Asthma

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Reviews of Environmental Contamination and Toxicology Volume 226

Part of the book series: Reviews of Environmental Contamination and Toxicology ((RECT,volume 226))

Abstract

People in modern societies spend the vast majority of their time in indoor environments, including homes, workplaces, schools, and public spaces. Hence, indoor environmental quality has a significant impact on public health and well-being. Exposure or sensitization to indoor pollutants, including cigarette smoke (Hersoug et al. 2010), air pollution (Trupin et al. 2010), and allergens (Dottorini et al. 2007), is an important risk factor for asthma morbidity. Asthma, a common chronic respiratory disease, has been a growing international issue because its prevalence has been expanding in adults and children. The burden of this disease on governmental healthcare systems, patients and their families is increasing worldwide. It is estimated that there are approximately 300 million asthma patients worldwide and that 15 million disability-adjusted life years are lost annually by those afflicted with asthma (Fukutomi et al. 2010). Asthma usually arises from an interaction between host and environmental factors. A rapid increase in asthma in recent years cannot be ascribed to changes in genetic factors, but rather, to changes in environmental factors. In addition to increased indoor air contaminant exposures, several social factors that may contribute to developing asthma morbidity have been studied; among factors that have been given widespread attention are geographical variations, socioeconomic status (SES), and ethnicity.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the foundation of: National University of Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia (FF-013-2012); Key Technologies R&D Programme of Department of Science and Technology of Guizhou Province, China (SY[2012]3126) and (SY[2011]3029).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Medicine, Department of Community Health, National University of Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur, 56000, Malaysia

    Yu Jie & Zaleha Md Isa

  2. School of Public Health, Zunyi Medical College, Zunyi, Guizhou, 563003, People’s Republic of China

    Yu Jie, Xu Jie & Noor Hassim Ismail

  3. The First Department of Respiratory Diseases, First Affiliated Hospital of Zunyi Medical College, Zunyi, Guizhou, 563003, People’s Republic of China

    Zhang Long Ju

Authors
  1. Yu Jie
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  2. Zaleha Md Isa
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  3. Xu Jie
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  4. Zhang Long Ju
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  5. Noor Hassim Ismail
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Noor Hassim Ismail .

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    David M. Whitacre

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© 2013 Springer Science+Business Media New York

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Jie, Y., Isa, Z.M., Jie, X., Ju, Z.L., Ismail, N.H. (2013). Urban vs. Rural Factors That Affect Adult Asthma. In: Whitacre, D. (eds) Reviews of Environmental Contamination and Toxicology Volume 226. Reviews of Environmental Contamination and Toxicology, vol 226. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-6898-1_2

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