Neil Pearce

TL;DR: Phase Three of the International Study of Asthma and Allergies in Childhood measured the global prevalence of symptoms of asthma in children to explore the potential role of reverse causation due to selective avoidance or confounding by indication.

TL;DR: Findings contradict previous speculations of possible differences in asthma prevalence or severity within the greater Wellington region and are consistent with other evidence that there are at most minor differences between Maori and nonMaori children in New Zealand; however, asthma prevalence may be lower among Pacific Island children.

TL;DR: Hairdressers had a higher prevalence of asthma symptoms, diagnosed asthma, and asthma attacks in the previous 12 months, but these differences reduced markedly when adjusted for age, gender and smoking, and mean pulmonary function was lower in hairdressers.

TL;DR: The key findings will arise from follow-up, but it is striking that 5% of males under aged 30 had to be excluded because of pre-existing kidney disease, and that despite doing so 11% of Males had an eGFR <90 mL/min/1.73 m2 at baseline.

TL;DR: Epidemiological failures primarily involve studies of lifestyle factors (particularly diet), which are notoriously difficult to investigate, since the exposed group will often be markedly different from the non-exposed group as regards other lifestyle factors.