Abstract OBJECTIVE: To study allergens and their relationship to the occurrence of childhood bronchial asthma in the Jiading District of Shanghai. METHODS: Three hundred and eighty-two 4 to 12-year-old children with asthma in the remission stage from Nanxiang Hospital in the Jiading District of Shanghai were used as a case group (asthma group), and 402 children from two primary schools and two kindergartens in Jiading were enrolled by cluster sampling and served as control group. Parents of the children completed a questionnaire on living conditions and allergy-related disease history. Skin prick test (SPT) for 18 common allergens was carried out in both groups. In order to examine the effect of environment and living conditions on SPT results, children in the control group were further divided into two sub-groups according to birth place: migrant (219 cases) and resident (183 cases). RESULTS: SPT results revealed that the main allergens identified in the Jiading region were dermatophagoides farinae, house dust mites, shrimps, cockroaches, and dog hair. The SPT positive rate was 67.9% in the asthma group, and this was significantly higher than in the control group (31.8%) (P<0.01). The environment and living conditions in the migrant group were significantly different from the resident group (P<0.01), whereas the SPT positive rate for this group was significantly lower than in the resident group (P<0.01). CONCLUSIONS: Allergens in the Jiading region mainly originate from dermatophagoides farinae, household dust mites, shrimps, cockroaches and dog hair. Children with asthma are more susceptible to allergens. Environment and living conditions may be relevant, to a certain extent, to an SPT positive rate.
DONG Wei,SHENG Jun,GU Xiu-Ming et al. Allergens and their relationships to childhood bronchial asthma in the Jiading District of Shanghai[J]. 中国当代儿科杂志, 2012, 14(07): 521-523.
DONG Wei,SHENG Jun,GU Xiu-Ming et al. Allergens and their relationships to childhood bronchial asthma in the Jiading District of Shanghai[J]. CJCP, 2012, 14(07): 521-523.
[1]Saglani S, Mckenzie SA. Environmental factors relevant to difficult asthmas[J]. Paediatr Respir Rev, 2002, 3(3): 248-254.
[2]Garcia-Marcos L, Sanchez-Solis M, Martinez-Torres AE, Lucas Moreno JM, Hernando Sastre V. Phadiatop TM compared to skin-prick test as a tool for diagnosing atopy in epidemiological studies in school children[J]. Pediatr Allergy Immunol, 2007, 18(3): 240-244.
[5]Celdón JC, Milton DK, Ramsey CD, Litonjua AA, Ryan L, Platts-Mills TA, et al. Exposure to dust mite allergen and endotoxin in early life and asthma and atopy in childhood[J]. J Allergy Clin Immunol, 2007,120(1): 144-149.
[6]Platts-Mills TA, Erwin EA, Heymann PW, Woodfolk JA. Pro: The evidence for a causal role of dust mites in asthma[J]. Am J Respir Crit Care Med, 2009, 180(2): 109-113.
[8]Wong GW, von Mutius E, Douwes J, Pearce N. Environmental determinants associated with the development of asthma in childhood[J]. Int J Tuberc Lung Dis, 2006, 10(3): 242-251.
[9]Blumenthal JB, Bumenthal MN. Genetics of asthma[J]. Med Clin North Am, 2002, 86(5): 937-950.