The objective of the present longitudinal study was to investigate the effects of occupational endotoxin exposure on respiratory health and atopic sensitization in adults. Health outcomes and personal endotoxin exposure estimates were determined for 234 farmers and agricultural workers both at baseline and 5 years later. A questionnaire was used to assess respiratory symptoms, spirometry tests ...

BACKGROUND A farming environment protects against development of asthma, hay fever, and atopic sensitisation in children. We aimed to establish whether increased exposure to microbial compounds has to occur early in life to affect maturation of the immune system and thereby reduces risk for development of allergic diseases. METHODS We did a cross-sectional survey in rural areas of Austria, Ge...

Asthma and hay fever are likely to share hundreds if not thousands of genetic risk variants. Despite this, the extent to which the power to identify shared risk variants could be improved by considering information from both diseases when designing or analyzing genetic studies has not been studied in detail. Simulations were performed to quantify the power to detect an association between case-...

The dietary intake of certain fatty acids might contribute to the development of allergic diseases such as hay fever and asthma. We investigated the association between the concentrations of fifteen fatty acids in serum phospholipids, as a marker of dietary intake and metabolism, and hay fever, allergic sensitisation and total IgE in adults. Data from a population-based cross-sectional study on...

In a genome-wide association study, a common variant on chromosome 11q13.5 (rs7927894[T]) has been identified as a susceptibility locus for eczema. We aimed to analyze the effect of this risk variant on asthma and hay fever and to determine its impact on the general population level in over 9300 individuals of the prospectively evaluated Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children birth coh...

BACKGROUND Suggestions that immunisation influences allergic disease risk, either positively (pertussis) or negatively (BCG) are of concern for vaccination policy. AIMS To determine whether DTP, MMR, and BCG vaccination in infancy influenced hay fever risk. METHODS Case-control study of 7098 hay fever cases and controls, within two primary care databases. One control per case was matched fo...

OBJECTIVE To estimate trends between 1972-6 and 1996 in the prevalences of asthma and hay fever in adults. DESIGN Two epidemiological surveys 20 years apart. Identical questions were asked about asthma, hay fever, and respiratory symptoms at each survey. SETTING Renfrew and Paisley, two towns in the west of Scotland. SUBJECTS 1,477 married couples aged 45-64 participated in a general popu...

The survival oriented adaptation of evolved biosystems to variations in their environment is a selective optimization process. Recognizing the optimised end product and its functionality is the classical arena of bionic engineering. In a primordial world, however, the molecular organization and functions of prebiotic systems were solely defined by formative processes in their physical and chemi...

The range of treatments for hay fever available to the general practitioner has changed considerably in recent years. New antihistamines have addressed the problem of sedation and moved towards one daily dose; nasally applied corticosteroids avoid the need for systemic steroid therapy and its potential adverse effect; and regulatory decisions have set a trend away from immunotherapy in general ...