Different features between subjects with asthma diagnosis and with only asthmatic symptoms

Aim: to evaluatewhethersubjectswithonlyasthmasymptomshavedifferent characteristicswithrespecttothosewhohavealsoasthmadiagnosisinanItalian generalpopulationsample. Methods: ongoing cross-sectionalItalianstudywithintheframeworkoftheEuro- pean UnionfundedprojectIMCA2(IndicatorsforMonitoringCOPDandAsthma in theEU)involving1000selectedsubjectslivinginPisa. An informationtechnologytooldevelopedbythecoordinatingcentre(IMIM, Barcelona)wasusedtoadministerquestionnairesonrespiratorysymptoms/diseases and riskfactors,andtorecordspirometricparameters. A MultinomialLogisticRegression(MLR)analysiswasperformedtoassessthe associationbetweenriskfactorsandpresenceofasthmadiagnosis(with/without symptoms)oronlyasthmasymptomsrepresentedbywheezing/whistling,dysp- noea 2ndlevel+,attacksofshortnessofbreathwithwheezesandnocturnalasthma attacks.Subjectswithneitherasthmadiagnosisnorsymptomswerethereference category.