Background: It has been hypothesized that allergic rhinitis and allergic asthma are manifestations of the same disease entity. We aimed to investigate the relationship between allergic rhinitis and allergic asthma.Methods: Participants in a population‐based study of 15–69‐year‐olds in 1990 were invited to a follow‐up in 1998. A total of 734 subjects were examined on two occasions eight years apart. Allergic rhinitis to pollen was defined as a history of nasal symptoms on exposure to pollens and IgE specific to pollen. Allergic asthma to pollen was defined as a history of lower airway symptoms on exposure to pollens and IgE specific to pollen. Similarly, diagnoses of allergic rhinitis and allergic asthma to animals or mite were defined.Results: At follow‐up, all subjects with allergic asthma to pollen (n = 52) had in addition allergic rhinitis to pollen. In the longitudinal analysis, there were a total of 28 new (incident) cases of allergic asthma to pollen. They all had allergic rhinitis to pollen at baseline, or had developed allergic rhinitis to pollen at follow‐up. Accordingly, allergic rhinitis to animals and mite were ubiquitous in subjects with allergic asthma to animals and mite, respectively.Conclusions: The results support the hypothesis that allergic rhinitis and allergic asthma are manifestations of the same disease entity.
In 1990 and 1998 15-41-year-old people were patch-tested in 2 cross-sectional studies of random samples of the population in the western part of Copenhagen County, Denmark. In 1990, 290 subjects and in 1998, 469 subjects were patch-tested. The participation rates were 69% and 51%, respectively. Contact sensitivity to one or more haptens was found in 15.9% and 18.6% in 1990 and 1998, respectively. Nickel sensitivity is still the most common contact sensitivity. The risk of contact sensitivity to the cosmetic-related haptens included in the series (formaldehyde was not included) increased significantly from 2.4% in 1990 to 5.8% in 1998 (odds ratio 2.44, 95% confidence interval 1.04-5.73). The prevalence of contact sensitivity to cosmetic-related allergens has been doubled between 1990 and 1998.
This epidemiological study confirms that alcohol consumption has an influence on levels of serum total IgE. A significant association between alcohol consumption and the development of IgE sensitization was not established. However, there seems to be a lack epidemiological data on this issue.
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