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Acquiring a cat in adulthood doubles the risk of allergy

27.02.2012

Researchers from the Centre for Research in Environmental Epidemiology (CREAL) in Barcelona and the University Hospital of Verona in Italy have found that the immune reactions that THE body shows after exposure to a feline is related to the age of the owner. Mainly their study supports that acquiring a cat in adulthood nearly doubles the risk of developing cat sensitization, as they wrote in The Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology.

“Hence, cat avoidance should be considered in adults, especially in those sensitized to other allergens or reporting a history of allergic diseases,” advise Dr. Josep M. Antó and Dr. Jan-Paul Zock, CREAL Director and researcher from CREAL respectively.

The study involved more than 6,000 European adults twice over nine years and took blood samples. None of the studied people had antibodies against cat in their blood to begin with, meaning they weren't sensitized to the animal's dander.

Overall, 4,468 volunteers did not have a cat at either study point, 473 had a cat only at baseline, 651 got a feline during the 9-year follow-up, and 700 had a cat at both evaluations.

According to the findings, about 3 percent of the participants who did not have a cat at either time of the survey became sensitized over the course of the study, compared to 5 percent of those who acquired a cat during the study period.

Four in 10 of the newly sensitized also said they experienced allergy symptoms around animals, four times the rate seen among people without antibodies against cats.

Interestingly, none of the people who got a cat but kept it out of their bedroom became sensitive to cat dander during follow-up compared with the 5 percent of those who let the new cat into the bedroom.
 

Reference: Olivieri M, Zock JP, Accordini S, Heinrich J, Jarvis D, Künzli N, Antó JM, Norbäck D, Svanes C, Verlato G; Indoor Working Group of the European Community Respiratory Health Survey II. J Allergy Clin Immunol. 2012 Feb;129(2):420-5. Epub 2011 Dec 9.