Translational Sports Medicine

Research Article

Prevalence of Asthma among Norwegian Elite Athletes

Table 3

Bronchial hyperresponsiveness measured as PD20met <8 μmol, fractional expired nitric oxide FENO >25 ppb, allergy and lung function variables presented as Z-score, and lower limit of normal (LLN) among elite athletes with doctor-diagnosed asthma and elite athletes without asthma.


Variables	Current asthma		value
Variables	Yes (n = 43)	No (n = 90; 87; 91)^#	value

PD_20met <8 μmol, n (%)	37 (86)	14 (15)	<0.001
FE_NO >25 ppb, n (%)	11 (26)	11 (12)	0.079
Allergy, n (%)	18 (42)	34 (39)	0.850
z-FEV_1, mean (95% CI)	−0.50 (−0.78, −0.22)	0.42 (0.25, 0.62)	<0.001
z-FVC, mean (95% CI)	0.34 (0.04, 0.63)	0.50 (0.35, 0.68)	0.288
z-MEF_25–75, mean (95% CI)	−0.53 (−0.85, −0.20)	0.45 (0.25, 0.64)	<0.001
z-FEV₁/FVC, mean (95% CI)	−1.24 (−1.50, −0.97)	−0.21 (−0.38, −0.03)	<0.001
LLN FEV₁n (%)	4 (9)	0 (0)	0.010
LLN FVC n (%)	0 (0)	0 (0)	ns
LLN MEF_25–75n (%)	5 (12)	0 (0)	0.003
LLN FEV₁/FVC n (%)	13 (30)	3 (3)	<0.001

PD_20met = provocation dose of methacholine causing 20% reduction in forced expiratory volume in the first second of expiration; allergy is defined as one or more positive skin prick tests; FEV₁ = forced expiratory volume in one second; FVC = forced vital capacity; MEF_25–75 = mean expiratory flow between 25 and 75% of FVC; LLN = lower level of normal defined as Z-score <−1.645. ^# = for the no asthma group; n = 89 for FE_NO, n = 87 for allergy, and n = 91 for LLN and lung function values ns = not significant = significant difference between asthmatic and non-asthmatic athletes.