Weronika Wolińska

Blood Group and Incidence of Asthma and Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease

Chronic respiratory diseases are determined by genetic predisposition, and environmental and socioeconomic variables. One genetic factor underlying susceptibility to such diseases can be the ABO blood group system. The purpose of this study was to investigate the hypothesis that there would be a relationship between the blood group and risk of developing asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). We reviewed medical history files of patients with the diagnosis of COPD or asthma, including those suffering from a cancerous disease accompanied by asthma or COPD, hospitalized from January 2016 to July 2017. The study involved 248 adult patients (85 women and 163 men; median age 65, range 20-95 years) with COPD (177; 71.4%) and asthma (71; 28.6%) with a known blood type. We found that the most frequent was blood type A (97; 39.1%) and the least blood type AB (26; 8.0%). The distribution of individual blood types in asthma was not different from that in COPD patients. Significant differences were found between the distribution of O and pooled non-O blood types (A, B, and AB); the pooled category was more frequent in both asthma and COPD patients. We conclude that the blood type is not a prognostic differentiating between the occurrence of asthma or COPD, although both are less common in people with blood type O. Further investigation is required to set the predisposing role of the ABO antigens for chronic respiratory diseases.

Occurrence of alcohol addiction in the adult population living in rural areas

INTRODUCTION Risky alcohol consumption is one of the main threats to the health of both individuals and society as a whole. These threats affect, among others, health, safety and financial situation. Their scale and intensity cause the issue of alcohol consumption to become a significant challenge for public health. OBJECTIVE The aim of the study was assessment of the occurrence of the problem of alcohol consumption among residents of rural areas in Western Pomerania and the Lubuskie Province of Western Poland. MATERIAL AND METHODS The study was conducted on 350 residents of rural areas - 236 females (66.4%) and 114 males (32.6%), median age - 42 y. (range - 20-76 years). The tools used included MAST and AUDIT questionnaires, Health Behaviour Inventory (HBI), Social Activity Questionnaire (SA), and original questions. RESULTS In the studied group the problem with proper alcohol consumption occurred. High convergence was observed between results obtained by individual respondents with both tools (r=0.868 with p<0.001). Median on the AUDIT scale indicated the possibility of alcoholism occurrence in the studied group, whereas the MAST test indicated the necessity to conduct an in-depth alcohol diagnosis. Factors that differentiated the points scored by respondents in AUDIT test included gender - more women drank alcohol in a risky way (Z=-2.54, p=0.011), education, health behaviours, professional passivity, and using various forms of support. In the AUDIT test, the alcoholism threat was over 7 times higher in people without permanent employment (vs. employed people), OR=7.41 (95% CI-4.56-12.04), and in MAST test it was over 4 times higher in these individuals: OR =4.45 (95% CI-2.64-7.49). CONCLUSIONS Results indicate the need to intensify the work of regional facilities for solving alcohol problems, as well as educational campaigns in schools and health care facilities.