Change in the symptom profile treated as asthma – two cross-sectional studies twenty years apart

Respiratory Research

Table 5 Association between self-reported use of asthma medication and respiratory symptoms, adjusted for age, smoking status and sex

Independent variables	Dependent variables (RR, 95% CI)
Independent variables	Asthma medication use 1993/94	Asthma medication use 2014/15
Breathlessness while wheezing	6.29 (1.67–23.70)**	9.35 (2.19–40.03)**
Wheeze without cold	3.18 (0.97–10.36)	3.66 (1.01–13.26)*
Waking with chest tightness	5.97 (1.56–22.90)**	0.28 (0.11–0.69)**
Woken by attack of breathlessness	1.13 (0.40–3.18)	3.57 (1.33–9.56)*
Woken by attack of cough	0.49 (0.19–1.26)	2.29 (1.24–4.23)**
Nasal allergies	2.65 (1.05–6.69)*	3.86 (1.40–10.68)**
Age	0.95 (0.89–1.02)	0.94 (0.90–0.98)**
Smoking history	0.67 (0.40–1-13)	0.52 (0.37–0.74)***

All independent variables were added into the models all at once. Relative risk (RR) with 95% Confidence Intervals (CI). *p < 0.05, **p < 0.01, ***p < 0.001