Team members of CERH participated in the 23^rd Annual Congress of the European Respiratory Society (ERS) in Barcelona, Spain, at 7-11 September. This meeting is the world’s largest congress on respiratory health and disease.

Postdoctoral researcher Aino Rantala presented a poster “Occurrence of respiratory infections in adults with atopic disease and IgE antibodies to common aeroallergens” (authors from CERH, University of Oulu and Oulu University Hospital: Rantala A, Jaakkola JJK, Jaakkola MS) in a Thematic poster session of Epidemiology of asthma.  The study provides new evidence that working-age adults with atopic disease are more susceptible to both lower and upper respiratory infections than adults with no atopic disease. Thus, the results support the hypothesis that allergies are linked to increased susceptibility to infections.

Doctoral student, BSc, Sirpa Heikkinen presented a poster “Effect of regular exercise on asthma control in young adults” (authors from CERH, University of Oulu and Oulu University Hospital: Heikkinen SAM, Jaakkola MS, Quansah R, Jaakkola JJK) in the same Thematic poster session of Epidemiology of asthma. The study provides new evidence that regular exercise improves asthma control in young adults, and the presentation aroused interest of researchers worldwide.

Doctoral student, BSc, Sirpa Heikkinen presented another poster “Indoor dampness and moulds and the risk of allergic rhinitis: a meta-analysis” (authors from CERH, University of Oulu and Oulu University Hospital: Jaakkola MS, Quansah R, Hugg T, Heikkinen SAM, Jaakkola JJK) in Poster discussion section ‘Environment and lifestyle’. The subject has been studied earlier in many different studies, but the results have been inconclusive and have not been studied systematically earlier. The presentation concluded that dampness and moulds at home are determinants of allergic rhinitis and supported the hypothesis that prevention and remediation of dampness and mould problems are likely to reduce allergic rhinitis.