Environmental and occupational respiratory disordersNot all farming environments protect against the development of asthma and wheeze in children
Section snippets
Population and study areas
The PARSIFAL study was a cross-sectional survey on children of farmers, children attending Rudolf Steiner schools, and their respective reference groups. The study was carried out as described previously.21 In the farming branch of the study, children aged 5 to 13 years from rural areas of Austria, Germany, The Netherlands, Sweden, and Switzerland were invited to participate. Of the 11,969 invited children, 8402 (70%) returned the questionnaires. A total of 139 children were excluded because of
Characteristics of farms and children's activities on farms
Information on farms is provided in Table I. The questions regarding farm characteristics were not mutually exclusive, and therefore percentages do not sum up to 100%. Because the PARSIFAL study was deliberately performed in regions of dairy farming, the predominant form of farming was livestock, in particular cattle. Yet substantial numbers of other animals were kept on the farms as well. Of the livestock farms, 37% also performed agriculture, most likely to provide fodder for their animals.
Discussion
The present study revealed distinct protective exposures for asthma and wheeze (agriculture, pig farming, silage, haying, farm milk, animal sheds, and barns). Most of these exposures were related to the atopic phenotypes, but silage exerted a protective effect only on the nonatopic phenotype. Furthermore, potential risk factors for asthma and wheeze have been identified in the farm milieu (sheep and hare keeping and using hay as feed). For atopic sensitization, agriculture, pig, and poultry
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Cited by (0)
Supported by a research grant from the European Union (QLRT 1999-01391) and by funding from the Swedish Foundation for Health Care Science and Allergy Research, the Swiss National Foundation (grant no. 32-100324), the Kühne-Foundation, and the European Union Framework program for research (contract no. FOOD-CT-2004-506378, the Global Allergy and Asthma European Network [GA2LEN]).
Disclosure of potential conflict of interest: The authors have declared that they have no conflict of interest.
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The Prevention of Allergy Risk Factors for Sensitization in Children Related to Farming and Anthroposophic Lifestyle (PARSIFAL) study group: Tobias Alfvén, Johan Alm, Anna Bergström, Lars Engstrand, Helen Flöistrup, Niclas Håkansson, Gunnar Lilja, Jackie Swartz, Magnus Wickman, Annika Scheynius (Sweden); Roger Lauener, Felix Sennhauser, Johannes Wildhaber, Alex Möller (Switzerland); Gert Doukes, Mirian Boeve, Jeroen Douwes, Machteld Huber, Mirjam Matze (The Netherlands); Jörg Budde (Germany); Waltraud Eder, Mynda Schreuer, Ellen Üblagger (Austria); Karin B. Michels (USA).