The relationship of children sensitized to peanut and parental asthma in Study Asthma Genes and the Environment (SAGE)

Background Children with asthma most often have associated allergy, and peanut allergy with asthma is more common in children whose parents have asthma. It is not clear how common peanut allergy is among these children. The St. John’s cohort, India has found 6.2% peanut sensitivity children whose mothers have asthma. Children are at greater risk for severe life threatening reactions and hospitalization. Materials and methods The SAGE cohort is a study of children born in 1995 in Manitoba. We created a nested case-control cohort of 723 children for asthma and allergy at 8 years of age. Atopy was defined as having at least one positive skin test, to common inhalantsand to peanut (wheal diameter≥3 mm.) Chi-square test and Fisher’ se xact test was applied, the likelihood (odds ratio, OR) of parental asthma of non-peanut allergic children compared to parental asthma of peanut sensitized children was determined.