Asthma linked to nut allergy

An American study on 1,240 children with reported food allergies has shown that those with peanut and tree nut allergy were more likely to have asthma. The cohort of children, with a mean age of 6 years, was recruited to the study from allergy referral centres around Boston.

The survey results from this study were compared with those obtained in the 2007 National Health Interview Survey which indicated the prevalence of asthma in USA children was 29%.  The study of food-allergic children found the overall prevalence of asthma in the cohort was 48%.

With many confounding factors to control, such as age, gender, parents’ asthma diagnosis, pollen allergy, and maternal education level, there was still a significantly higher prevalence of asthma for peanut and tree nut allergy, as well as for pet allergy, pollen allergy, and eczema. After a second multivariate analysis of those 1,027 children who had their food allergies tested (as opposed to never having tried the food), only peanut allergy and tree nut allergy still had significantly greater association with asthma.