Allergies, NIH study says, is likely due to cats

William Atkins
Monday, 01 October 2007 18:56

Science - Health

According to the National Institute of Health study that was published in September 2007 in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology, over 50% of asthma in the United States is due to allergies, and just under 30% of those cases is due to cat allergies.

The NIH study, called “Asthma cases attributable to atopy: Results from the Third National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey,” was performed by S.J. Arbes, P.J. Gergen, B. Vaughn, and D.C. Zeldin. These researchers are members of either the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) or the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), both within the NIH.

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%.