High prevalence of asthma symptoms in the Canary Islands: climatic influence?

The worldwide variation in asthma prevalence prompted us to carry out a study to assess the variability of asthma-related symptoms in young adults on the islands of Gran Canaria and Tenerife. We used the questionnaire used in the European Community Respiratory Health Survey with the addition of two questions on smoking and ancestors from the Canary Islands. In each island, this questionnaire was distributed to a random sample of 5000 subjects aged 20-44 years. Of the 10,000 subjects, 9,506 (95.06%) were considered eligible. We obtained 7,132 (75.03%) responses. The prevalence of the different symptoms was wheezing 25.3%, nocturnal thoracic tightness 18.0%, awakened by an attack of shortness of breath 13.1%, attack of nocturnal coughing 33.3%, attack of asthma 4.3%, current asthma treatment 6.2%, and nasal allergies 18.0%. Women and smokers showed a significantly higher prevalence of asthma symptoms. No significant difference in symptoms was found between subjects whose ancestors were of Canarian origin and those with ancestors born outside the Canaries. As has been observed on other islands (Great Britain and New Zealand), asthma is common in individuals from 20 to 44 years of age in the Canaries. We hypothesize that climatic conditions play an important role in the prevalence of asthma symptoms.

[Arterial hypertension in the island of Tenerife. I. Incidence (author's transl)]. / La hipertensión arterial en la isla de Tenerife. I. Frecuencia.

Arterial hypertension is one of the most frequent pathologic situations in general practice. The purpose of the present study has been to discover the real incidence of blood hypertension among people in the island of Tenerife, and its possible relation to several factors, such as age, sex, constitution, type of work, alimentary habits, and pathologic background, as well as the distribution of the disease according to the different altimetric zones of the island. A total of 1,728 individuals of both sexes (ages ranged from 13 to 74 years) were included in the study. Arterial hypertension was demonstrated in 19 percent of the subjects, borderline values were recorded in 11 percent of the individuals; 70 percent of the population exhibited normal arterial tension values. The incidence of blood hypertension increased progressively with age, and was similar in both sexes up until 44 years of age; in the older group hypertension was significantly higher among women. An important finding was the discovery that 90 percent of the hypertensive people were unaware of their condition, were aware but received no treatment, or were treated but were not kept under control. The younger the individual was, the higher was the proportion of subjects without treatment; 32 percent of the patients were under 45 years of age. In this group of young hypertensive people 83 percent of them did not receive anti-hypertensive therapy. while 16 percent of the same group were taking medication but did not have the disease under control.