The Relationship between Age of Asthma Onset and Cardiovascular Disease in Canadians

Abstract

Purpose: To quantify the association between cardiovascular disease (CVD) and asthma in Canadian adults and to determine whether age of asthma onset is a moderator of this association. Methods: We used a sample of 74 342 participants with a mean age of 56.4 ± 12.5 from cycle 1.1 of the Canadian Community Health Survey. Asthma age of onset was categorized into early-onset (0–20 years) and adult-onset (21–54 years). Three major outcomes were used to estimate the relationship between asthma and CVD, namely: high blood pressure, heart disease, and stroke. Results: Multiple logistic regression models revealed that asthmatics were 43% (OR = 1.43, CI = 1.19–1.72) more likely to have heart disease, and 36% (OR = 1.36, CI = 1.21–1.53) more likely to have high blood pressure than non-asthmatics. There were no consistent results for age of onset with high blood pressure, heart disease, or stroke. Conclusion: Using a population-based dataset we confirmed that asthmatics are at increased odds of cardiovascular disease compared to non-asthmatics; furthermore, age of asthma onset did not appear to moderate this relationship. Future research should focus on determining whether asthma severity or allergic/non-allergic phenotypes have a differential effect on the asthma-CVD relationship.

Keywords:

• asthma
• cardiovascular diseases
• hypertension
• heart diseases
• stroke