Conclusions Objectively-measured total ST and occupational ST are higher among economically active English adults www.selleckchem.com/products/pacritinib-sb1518.html in higher socioeconomic groups compared to less privileged groups. However, TV viewing is lower in higher socioeconomic groups regardless of economic activity. Combining different socioeconomic indicators appears to have composite power as a predictor of ST. Supplementary Material Reviewer comments: Click here to view.(162K, pdf) Author’s manuscript: Click here to view.(7.4M,

pdf) Footnotes Contributors: ES conceived the idea, prepared the data set, drafted most of the manuscript and revised the manuscript several times. NC did the statistical analysis under the supervision of ES and prepared the tables, figures and supplemental online material. AR processed the accelerometry files. NS, MH

and AR redrafted parts of the manuscript and critically evaluated the whole material. All authors approved the final version before submission. Funding: This work was funded by the National Institute for Health Research through a Career Development Fellowship (ES) (grant number: CDF-2010-03-30). NC is also funded by the National Institute for Health Research through the same source. The views expressed in this article are those of the authors and not the English Department of Health or the National Institute for Health Research. Competing interests: None. Patient consent: Obtained. Ethics approval: Ethical approval was obtained from the Oxford Research Ethics Committee (reference number 07/H0604/102). Provenance and peer review: Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed. Data sharing statement: No additional data are available.
Asthma is a common long-term condition that is associated with considerable

morbidity, avoidable mortality and substantial costs to the National Health Service (NHS) and society.1 2 Our previous work on the epidemiology and burden of allergy in the UK, driven mainly by asthma, has provided important insights into asthma epidemiology and resource utilisation and also demonstrated that the UK ranks among the countries with the highest prevalence in the world with a spend in excess of £1 billion in direct healthcare expenditure in England and Wales and an excess of £130 million in Scotland for asthma/allergy.1–4 A recent systematic review investigating the economic burden of asthma found that the costs associated with asthma are increasing globally.5 There were, however, some Cilengitide important shortcomings in our previous work.1–4 These include the fact that the analyses undertaken related to England and Wales or Scotland only, rather than the whole of the UK. Furthermore, some healthcare data were not studied in the previous works, for example, outpatient and accident and emergency department (A&E) utilisation and their associated costs. Moreover, estimates of the previous works are now several years out of date.