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JACI Highlights - June 2006
Perkin et al – Which aspects of the farming lifestyle explain the inverse association with childhood allergy?
In the June 2006 issue of the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology, Perkin et al report on a study of farmers' children in the United Kingdom to determine the factors responsible for the lower occurrence of allergy in farmers' children. It has been reported multiple times that farmers' children have less allergy than other rural children. The specific protective environmental factors responsible have not yet been identified. In this study, the authors found a significantly lower prevalence of current asthma and seasonal allergy symptoms, but not eczema in farmers' children. In contrast, rural non-farming children consuming unpasteurised milk had significantly less eczema and, particularly, allergy. These different patterns suggest that multiple factors underlie the protective effects among farming children. For those with allergies, unpasteurized milk consumption was the exposure mediating the protective effect in this study. The effect was independent of farming status and present with consumption of infrequent amounts of unpasteurized milk. Further research is needed to identify specific protective agents or mechanisms.
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