Current asthma and respiratory symptoms among pupils in relation to dietary factors and allergens in the school environment

Abstract

Previous school studies performed by us in mid-Sweden, showed that most classrooms did not fulfill the ventilation standards. In this study, most of the classrooms fulfilled the ventilation standard, but despite that had widespread allergen contamination. Most previous studies have focused on cat allergen, but our study has shown that also dog and horse allergens can be risk factors for asthma and allergy in schools. As allergens are transported from other environments, mainly the home environment, the main prevention should be to minimize transfer of allergens. This could be achieved by reducing contacts with furry pets and horses, or using different clothes at home and at school (e.g. school uniforms). Increased cleaning in the schools may reduce allergen levels, but the efficiency of this measure must be evaluated in further intervention studies. Finally, our study supports the view that dietary habits among pupils should not be neglected and interaction between dietary factors and indoor allergen exposure needs to be further investigated.

Fat intake and asthma in Spanish schoolchildren

“…One of the main source of these fatty acids is butter, which also showed an association with current asthma (Table 4). This result contrasts with that of a Swedish study involving 1014 schoolchildren (age 5-14 years), in which the associations between allergens and respiratory symptoms were more pronounced among those who did not consume butter and who had a low intake of milk (Kim et al, 2005). A similar observation was recorded in the Prevention and Incidence of Asthma and Mite Allergy birth cohort study (2003); after following 2978 pre-school children in the Netherlands for one year, the prevalence of recent asthma and wheezing was found to be lower in children who consumed butter daily than in those who did not (1.5 vs 5.1% for asthma and 7.7 vs 15.4% for wheezing) (Wijga et al, 2003).…”

“…Nevertheless, our results are more proximal to the prevalence found in Sweden children (5.9%) from 5-14 years old (Kim et al, 2005), Dutch children (6.5%), who had the same range age than children studied in our study (8-13 years) (Tabak et al, 2006) or One-way ANOVA was used to identify significant differences between children with and without asthma.…”

Asthma in adolescence affects daily life and school attendance - Two cross-sectional population-based studies 10 years apart

“…This is not surprising since measurements confirm contamination of cat and dog allergens in settled dust in the classrooms regardless of floor cleaning methods and ventilation (Kim et al., 2005; Perzanowski et al., 1999). In our study, when some of the adolescents reported different allergens as asthma triggers, several of the adolescents were bothered by furry animal allergens from classmates’ clothes.…”

Is there a role for fatty acids in early life programming of the immune system?

“…The protective effect varied between 25 and 95%, which might be attributed to differences in study design, exposure and outcome measure classification and assessment. Nine studies observed a beneficial effect of fish intake during infancy/childhood and atopic outcomes in those infants/children (32,35,(51)(52)(53)(54)(55)(56)(57) . The reduction in atopy/ allergy risk among these studies ranged between 22 and 80%.…”

“…Polyunsaturated oil consumption was associated with increased risk of wheeze in Swedish children (OR = 1 . 91) (35) . A high dietary ratio of n-6 to n-3 PUFA was associated with increased risk of asthma in Australian schoolchildren (OR = 1 .…”