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Direct and indirect exposure to pets: - risk of sensitization and asthma at 4 years in a birth cohort
Occupational and Environmental Health, Karolinska Hospital, Stockholm.
Occupational and Environmental Health, Karolinska Hospital, Stockholm.ORCID iD: 0000-0003-2504-343X
Department of Woman and Child Health, Karolinska Institutet, Astrid Lindgren Children's Hospital, Stockholm.
Occupational and Environmental Health, Karolinska Hospital, Stockholm.
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2003 (English)In: Clinical and Experimental Allergy, ISSN 0954-7894, E-ISSN 1365-2222, Vol. 33, no 9, p. 1190-1197Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]

INTRODUCTION: There are conflicting data on the association between early exposure to pets and allergic diseases. Bias related to retrospective information on pet ownership has been addressed as a reason for distorted study results.

OBJECTIVE: To elucidate how early exposure to cat and dog relates to IgE-sensitization and asthma in children at 2 and 4 years of age, in a prospective birth-cohort study.

METHODS: Four thousand and eighty-nine families with children born 1994-1996 in predefined areas of Stockholm answered questionnaires on environmental factors and symptoms of allergic disease at birth, one, two and four years of age. Dust samples collected from the mothers' beds at birth were analysed for Fel d 1 and Can f 1 in a subgroup of the cohort. Blood samples taken at four years from 2614 children were analysed for allergen-specific IgE to common airborne allergens. Risk associations were calculated with a multiple logistic regression model, with adjustment for potential confounders.

RESULTS: A correlation was seen between allergen levels and reported exposure to cat and dog. Exposure to cat seemed to increase the risk of cat sensitization, OR (odds ratio) 1.44 (95% confidence interval 1.03-2.01), whereas dog exposure did not have any effect on dog sensitization, OR 1.16 (0.79-1.72). Dog ownership was related to a reduced risk of sensitization to other airborne allergens, OR 0.36 (0.15-0.83), and a similar tendency was seen for cat ownership OR 0.63 (0.37-1.07). Early dog ownership seemed to be associated with a lower risk of asthma, OR 0.50 (0.24-1.03), with no corresponding effect after cat ownership, OR 0.88 (0.56-1.38).

CONCLUSION: Early exposure to cat seems to increase the risk of sensitization to cat but not of asthma at 4 years of age. Dog ownership, on the other hand, appears to be associated with lowered risk of sensitization to airborne allergens and asthma. Both aetiological relationships and selection effects have to be considered in the interpretation of these findings.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Wiley-Blackwell, 2003. Vol. 33, no 9, p. 1190-1197
Keywords [en]
allergens, allergy and immunology, animals, asthma, cats, child, dogs, domestic, endotoxins, prevention, primary
National Category
Medical and Health Sciences Respiratory Medicine and Allergy
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:rkh:diva-603DOI: 10.1046/j.1365-2222.2003.01764.xPubMedID: 12956738OAI: oai:DiVA.org:rkh-603DiVA, id: diva2:610540
Available from: 2013-03-12 Created: 2013-03-11 Last updated: 2017-12-06Bibliographically approved

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