OBJECTIVES Ragweed, Ambrosia artemisiifolia, is a highly allergenic annual herbaceous plant that is spreading quickly across the globe. Few studies have investigated the relationship between ragweed pollen counts and hay fever symptoms. We investigate the dose-response relationship between ragweed exposure in patients sensitized to ragweed and daily hay fever symptoms. METHOD A panel study wa...

OBJECTIVE To compare the prevalences of and risk factors for asthma, wheeze, hay fever and eczema in primary schoolchildren in Aberdeen in 2014. DESIGN Cross-sectional survey. SETTING Primary schools in Aberdeen, North-East Scotland. PARTICIPANTS Children in Scottish school years primary 1-7 were handed a questionnaire by their class teacher to be completed by their parents and returned t...

The occurrence of self-reported asthma/wheezing and hay fever among 3,808 pairs of twins from the Australian National Health and Medical Research Council Twin Registry was examined for evidence of genetic transmission by path analytic methods. The cumulative prevalence of asthma or wheezing was 13.2% and of hay fever, 32%. There were significant correlations in liability to reported disease amo...

BACKGROUND Atopy and allergic phenotypes are biologically characterized by an imbalanced T helper cell response skewed towards a type 2 (TH2) immune response associated with elevated serum immunoglobulin E (IgE) levels. Polymorphisms in cytokine genes might modulate regulation of the TH1/TH2 balance. We thus aimed at reproducing our previous findings from a European study population on the asso...

BACKGROUND Antibiotic use in infancy disrupts gut microflora during a critical period for immune system development. It is hypothesized that this could predispose to the development of allergic diseases. We investigated the associations of antibiotic use in the first 2 yr of life with the development of asthma, eczema or hay fever by age 7.5 yr in a longitudinal birth cohort. METHODS Subjects...

BACKGROUND There are controversial data as to interdependencies of exposure to furred pets in infancy and the prevalence of asthma and hay fever in children. Does the timing, intensity and type of pet exposure matter? METHODS Cross-sectional questionnaire data on 8216 German schoolchildren aged 5-7 years not living on a farm in ten rural districts in Bavaria in 1997 were analysed. The diagnos...

Polymorphisms in genes involved in the oxidative stress response may partially explain the documented heterogeneous associations between traffic-related air pollution (TRAP) exposure and asthma and allergies in children. We investigated whether the GSTT1, GSTM1 and GSTP1 gene polymorphisms modified the associations between TRAP exposure during the first year of life and asthma, wheeze and hay f...

The associations among certain allergic disorders, atopy upon skin-prick testing, and specific cancers were evaluated in a prospective study. Information regarding history of asthma and hay fever was collected by questionnaire from 3,308 cancer-free participants in the 1981 Busselton Health Survey. A subset of 1,005 participants also underwent skin-prick testing. The cohort was followed for a n...

Plane-trees are widely grown in Spain as ornaments. This taxon releases large amounts of pollen into the air and this pollen type seems to have proved implications on pollinosis. The aim of this study was to analyse airborne Platanus pollen content in the air of C6rdoba (South-western Spain) over the last 10 years, and its distribution in different areas of the city, as well as to consider poss...