Occurrence of sensitisation and asthma with increasing domestic allergen exposure
| Highest domestic allergen concentration (μg/g) | Percentage of atopic children sensitised specifically to each allergen | Percentage of children with asthma | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Group1-150 | Median (range) | Sensitised1-160 | Strongly sensitised1-165 | Atopic | Specifically sensitised | Non-atopic | |||
| Mite | |||||||||
| 1 | 0.2 (<0.2–0.3) | 38 (11/29) | 17 (5/29) | 24 (7/29) | 36 (4/11) | 9 (2/23) | |||
| 2 | 0.42 (0.3–0.6) | 41 (11/27) | 11 (3/27) | 19 (5/27) | 27 (3/11) | 8 (1/13) | |||
| 3 | 0.92 (0.62–1.8) | 33 (9/27) | 15 (4/27) | 22 (6/27) | 33 (3/9) | 10 (2/21) | |||
| 4 | 5.0 (1.8–10.0) | 63 (17/27) | 26 (7/27) | 26 (7/27) | 29 (5/17) | 11 (3/27) | |||
| 5 | 17.1 (10.2–23.9) | 70 (19/27) | 33 (9/27) | 30 (8/27) | 37 (7/19) | 14 (3/22) | |||
| 6 | 38.2 (24.0–155) | 78 (21/27) | 52 (14/27) | 56 (15/27) | 57 (12/21) | 3 (1/33) | |||
| p=0.00003 | p=0.0003 | p=0.0084 | p=0.165 | p=0.68 | |||||
| Cat | |||||||||
| 1 | 0.6 (<0.5–0.9) | 28 (8/29) | 7 (2/29) | 37 (11/29) | 62 (5/8) | 18 (6/33) | |||
| 2 | 1.5 (0.9–1.9) | 26 (7/27) | 0 (0/27) | 22 (6/27) | 43 (3/7) | 11 (2/18) | |||
| 3 | 3.2 (2.0–4.4) | 48 (13/27) | 7 (2/27) | 22 (6/27) | 23 (3/13) | 0 (0/17) | |||
| 4 | 9.3 (4.5–23.0) | 37 (10/27) | 11 (3/27) | 33 (9/27) | 50 (5/10) | 12 (3/26) | |||
| 5 | 64 (23.4–112) | 15 (4/27) | 7 (2/27) | 33 (9/27) | 100 (4/4) | 0 (0/20) | |||
| 6 | 270 (123–920) | 26 (7/27) | 7 (2/27) | 26 (7/27) | 29 (2/7) | 4 (1/25) | |||
| p=0.302 | p=0.564 | p=0.853 | p=0.980 | p=0.0421-159 | |||||
| Cockroach | |||||||||
| 1 | <0.08 (<0.08) | 20 (29/145) | 3 (4/145) | 29 (41/145) | 34 (10/29) | 6 (7/119) | |||
| 2 | 0.33 (>0.08–15.6) | 72 (13/18) | 28 (5/18) | 39 (7/18) | 38 (5/13) | 25 (5/20) | |||
| p=0.00014 | p=0.0009 | p=0.51 | p=1.0 | p=0.015 | |||||
↵1-150 The highest domestic concentration of mite and cat allergen among atopic children was ranked and used to divide the population into six groups.
↵1-160 Allergen weal diameter ⩾4 mm.
↵1-165 Allergen weal diameter ⩾8 mm, this being a subgroup of those senstised.
p = chi square test for trend (groups scored by log10median allergen concentration) for mite and cat; Fisher’s exact test or chi-square, where appropriate, for cockroach.
↵1-159 Inverse relationship.