Environmental and Occupational DisordersPresence and timing of cat ownership by age 18 and the effect on atopy and asthma at age 28☆
Section snippets
Design
A random sample of third and fourth grade school children living in the coastal town of Belmont, New South Wales, Australia, was recruited in 1982 (N = 716, response rate 87%). Every other year the children were invited for a follow-up study until 1994, whereafter subsequent follow-up surveys were conducted in 1997 and 2002. All surveys were undertaken in the winter season (July through September). The Human Research Ethics Committee of the University of Sydney approved the protocols for these
Results
The final study population was composed of 224 subjects with complete data for cat ownership before and after 18 years of age (1992) and for health outcomes measured in 2002. At age 18 (1992 survey), 120 subjects (54%) ever had a cat, and 62 (52%) of these still did. Introduction of a cat in the household between age 18 (1992) and age 28 (2002) occurred for 22 subjects. Eight of them also had had a cat before age 18, and thus 14 subjects acquired their first cat after 1992. Considering the
Discussion
This follow-up study from childhood until adulthood shows that having a cat before 18 years of age reduces the risk of having asthma symptoms and probably also protects against allergic sensitization in adulthood. Our study is novel in including data from childhood until adulthood, and the design of the study allowed us to evaluate a number of atopic outcomes and consider the role of confounders in more detail.
The prevalence of atopy and asthma at age 28 was high in this population.
Acknowledgements
We thank Elena Belousova for organizing the data set.
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Supported by Community Health and Tuberculosis Australia, Allen+Hansburys, AstraZeneca, NSW Health, Asthma NSW, NHMRC, and University of Sydney. Gea de Meer was supported by a research fellowship of the Netherlands Asthma Foundation, and the Utrecht University.