According to NIEHS researcher Darryl C. Zeldin, one of the contributors to the study, “It has long been debated whether people who develop asthma have a genetic propensity to develop allergies, or atopy. This new research shows that 56.3 percent of asthma cases are attributed to atopy."

The NIH article “New National Study Links Asthma to Allergies,” which was also quoted above, states that “Atopy is a condition that results from gene-environment interactions and can be measured by a positive skin test to allergens (or allergy causing substances in the environment).”

In their experimental study, the NIH researchers studied ten allergens. Cat allergens were most frequently found to be associated with asthma, in about 29.3% of the cases. In second place was the fungus Alternaria, at 21.1%, and in third place was white oak, at about 20.9%.



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