Source: Annual Congress 2002 - The development of allergic sensitization / asthma in children
Disease area: Airway diseases, Paediatric lung diseases

Abstract

Whether exposure to pets in childhood promotes or protects against allergic disease in adulthood is not clear. There is evidence that this varies with regard to allergic predisposition.
18 530 subjects aged 20-44 years from 36 areas in Europe, New Zealand, USA and Australia, took part in the ECRHS I, stage II. Information on pet keeping in childhood was obtained through interviewer-led questionnaires. Information on atopy (specific IgE towards cat, grass, house dust mite and/or mould) was obtained from blood samples (n=13932). Atopy was used as a marker of allergic predisposition.
Among sensitisized subjects, adult asthma symptoms were more common in those who had kept a cat in childhood (ORwheeze=1.24, 95%CI=1.07-1.42, p=0.003), and hay fever was less common in those who had kept a dog in childhood (OR=0.83, 95%CI = 0.73-0.96, p=0.009). Adult pet keeping was not associated with symptoms of asthma or hay fever in this group. In non-sensitisized subjects, asthma symptoms were more common in those who had kept a dog in childhood (ORwheeze=1.32, 95%CI = 1.17-1.49, p=0.000) or who currently kept a dog (ORwheeze=1.31, 95%CI = 1.14-1.51, p=0.000). Pet keeping in childhood or adulthood was not associated with hay fever in this group. [dsquote]Wheeze with shortness of breath[dsquote], [dsquote]wheeze when not having a cold[dsquote] and [dsquote]current asthma medication[dsquote] showed similar results as [dsquote]wheeze[dsquote].
Conclusion: The effect of childhood pets on adult allergic disease varied with regard to allergic predisposition. In the predisposed, childhood cat keeping was assocatied with more adult asthma symptoms, while dogs protected towards hayfever. In those not predisposed, dogs in childhood and adulthood was related to more adult respiratory symptoms. Pets could not be analysed together as each species showed different effects.

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Citations should be made in the following way:
C. Svanes (Bergen, Norway). Childhood pets and adult asthma and hayfever: results from the European Community Respiratory Health Survey (ECRHS). Eur Respir J 2002; 20: Suppl. 38, 774

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