Yao Jiayun, Sbihi Hind
School of Population and Public Health, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC.
Can J Public Health. 2016 Dec 27;107(4-5):e461-e466. doi: 10.17269/cjph.107.5614.
The prevalence of allergic conditions has been increasing worldwide, with the highest rates seen in Western countries like Canada. The development of allergies is known to be related to both genetic and environmental factors, but the causal pathways remain unclear. Studies on immigrants provide a unique opportunity to disentangle these two factors and provide a better understanding of the disease aetiology. The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between immigration status and prevalence of non-food allergies in a population-based study of Canadians.
Data of 116,232 respondents from the Canadian Community Health Survey (Cycle 3.1, 2005) were used in a multivariable logistic regression to assess the association between immigration status (non-immigrant, long-time immigrant [>10 years] and recent immigrant [≤10 years]) and self-reported doctor-diagnosed non-food allergies, adjusting for potential confounders.
The highest prevalence of non-food allergies was found among non-immigrants (29.6%), followed by long-time immigrants (23.9%) and then recent immigrants (14.3%). The odds of non-food allergies were reduced by 60% (OR = 0.40, 95% CI: 0.35, 0.45) among recent immigrants and 25% (OR = 0.75, 95% CI: 0.70, 0.80) among long-time immigrants, compared with non-immigrants, after adjusting for sex, age, socio-economic status and rurality.
This study finds a distinctly lower prevalence of non-food allergies among immigrants compared with non-immigrants, with the difference diminishing with longer duration of residence in Canada. The findings highlight the potential of environmental determinants of allergy development that warrant further investigation, and demonstrate the need for multicultural strategies to manage the public health burden of allergic conditions.
全球过敏性疾病的患病率一直在上升，在加拿大等西方国家发病率最高。已知过敏症的发展与遗传和环境因素都有关，但因果途径仍不清楚。对移民的研究提供了一个独特的机会来厘清这两个因素，并更好地理解疾病的病因。本研究的目的是在一项基于人群的加拿大人研究中调查移民身份与非食物过敏患病率之间的关系。
来自加拿大社区健康调查（2005年第3.1轮）的116232名受访者的数据被用于多变量逻辑回归，以评估移民身份（非移民、长期移民[>10年]和近期移民[≤10年]）与自我报告的医生诊断的非食物过敏之间的关联，并对潜在的混杂因素进行调整。
非食物过敏患病率最高的是非移民（29.6%），其次是长期移民（23.9%），然后是近期移民（14.3%）。在调整了性别、年龄、社会经济地位和农村地区因素后，与非移民相比，近期移民中非食物过敏的几率降低了60%（OR = 0.40，95%CI：0.35，0.45），长期移民降低了25%（OR = 0.75，95%CI：0.70，0.80）。
本研究发现，与非移民相比，移民中非食物过敏的患病率明显较低，且这种差异随着在加拿大居住时间的延长而减小。研究结果突出了过敏症发展的环境决定因素的潜力，值得进一步研究，并表明需要采取多元文化策略来应对过敏性疾病的公共卫生负担。
