Division of Environmental Health Sciences, University of Minnesota School of Public Health, Minneapolis, Minnesota.
Division of Epidemiology and Community Health, University of Minnesota School of Public Health, Minneapolis, Minnesota; Masonic Cancer Center, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota.
Ann Allergy Asthma Immunol. 2018 Jun;120(6):654-660.e1. doi: 10.1016/j.anai.2018.03.029. Epub 2018 Apr 6.
The association between residence and allergy has been well studied in children living on a farm; however, studies of this association in late adulthood are lacking.
This study examined the association between residence and allergy in 25,393 women aged 55–69 years in the large prospective Iowa Women’s Health Study (IWHS).
IWHS questionnaires collected information on socio-demographic and anthropometric characteristics, medical history, lifestyle behaviors, dietary intake, residence and allergy. Residence reported at baseline (1986) was categorized into 5 groups based on living on a farm, rural, or urban areas and population size. Allergy was determined from four self-reported questions about physician-diagnosed asthma, hay fever, skin allergy, and other allergy. Logistic regression was used to determine significant risk factors for allergy and prevalence odds ratios (OR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) for allergy associated with residence.
Compared to large city of >10,000 residents, those living on farm, rural and smaller urban areas had decreased odds ratios of overall, skin, and other allergy in age and multivariable-adjusted models. The multivariable ORs (95% CI) for farm versus large city were decreased for overall allergy: 0.72 (0.66, 0.78) and all allergy types including asthma: 0.87 (0.75, 1.00), hay fever: 0.77 (0.69, 0.88), skin: 0.76 (0.68, 0.86), and other allergy: 0.76 (0.68, 0.86).
This study supports a hypothesis that farm living is inversely associated with allergy, suggesting that environmental exposures may protect against allergy not only in childhood, but also in late adulthood.
在农场生活的儿童中，居住地与过敏之间的关联已得到充分研究；然而，关于成年后期这种关联的研究却很少。
本研究在大型前瞻性爱荷华州妇女健康研究（IWHS）中，调查了 25393 名 55-69 岁女性的居住地与过敏之间的关联。
IWHS 问卷收集了社会人口统计学和人体测量特征、病史、生活方式行为、饮食摄入、居住地和过敏的信息。根据居住在农场、农村或城市地区以及人口规模，将基线（1986 年）报告的居住地分为 5 组。过敏是通过四个关于医生诊断的哮喘、花粉热、皮肤过敏和其他过敏的自我报告问题来确定的。使用逻辑回归来确定过敏的显著风险因素，并确定与居住地相关的过敏的患病率比值比（OR）和 95%置信区间（CI）。
与拥有 10000 名以上居民的大城市相比，在农场、农村和较小的城市地区生活的人，在年龄和多变量调整模型中，总体过敏、皮肤过敏和其他过敏的几率较低。与大城市相比，农场与总体过敏的多变量 OR（95%CI）为 0.72（0.66，0.78），所有过敏类型（包括哮喘）的 OR 为 0.87（0.75，1.00），花粉热的 OR 为 0.77（0.69，0.88），皮肤过敏的 OR 为 0.76（0.68，0.86），其他过敏的 OR 为 0.76（0.68，0.86）。
本研究支持这样一种假设，即农场生活与过敏呈负相关，这表明环境暴露不仅可能在儿童时期，而且在成年后期预防过敏。
