{"id":7596,"date":"2021-12-14T10:38:43","date_gmt":"2021-12-14T02:38:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/zestmag.com\/online\/?p=7596"},"modified":"2021-12-14T10:38:44","modified_gmt":"2021-12-14T02:38:44","slug":"allergic-conditions-linked-to-lower-covid-19-infection-risk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/zestmag.com\/online\/allergic-conditions-linked-to-lower-covid-19-infection-risk\/","title":{"rendered":"Allergic conditions linked to lower COVID-19 infection risk"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

People with allergic conditions such as hay fever, rhinitis, and atopic eczema, may have a lower risk of COVID-19 infection, especially if they also have asthma, finds a large, population-based study of UK adults, published online in the respiratory journal\u00a0<\/strong>Thorax<\/strong><\/em>.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

And contrary to the findings of recent studies, older age, male sex, and other underlying conditions aren\u2019t linked to a heightened risk of infection, the research indicates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But Asian ethnicity, obesity, household overcrowding, socialising indoors with other households, and holding down a people-facing role other than in health and social care are all independently associated with a heightened risk of developing COVID-19, the findings show.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A growing body of evidence suggests that at least some risk factors for developing COVID-19 may differ from those which predispose to severe disease and the need for intensive care, say the researchers.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

To explore this further and glean what contribution demographic, socioeconomic, lifestyle, diet, medical treatment and underlying conditions might make to the risk of developing COVID-19, the researchers captured detailed information on potential risk factors for the infection among UK adults between May 2020 and February 2021. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

All participants were asked to provide information on their age, household circumstances, job, lifestyle, weight, height, long-standing medical conditions, medication use, vaccination status, diet and supplement intake when they joined the study and then again in subsequent months. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Out of 16,081 eligible people, 15,227 completed at least one subsequent monthly follow-up questionnaire 30 days or more after joining the study; and 14,348 completed the final questionnaire on or before 5 February 2021. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The average age of the participants was 59; 70% were women; and 95% identified their ethnic origin as white. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In all, 446 participants  (almost 3%) had at least one episode of confirmed COVID-19 infection, as determined by swab (PCR or lateral flow) test during the study period, and 32 were admitted to hospital.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The researchers accounted for an array of potentially influential factors: age: sex: length of participation in the study: ethnicity: testing frequency: ethnicity; education; deprivation; household income; housing type; number of people per bedroom; schoolchildren at home; ownership of a pet dog; shielding;  socialising with other households; visits to shops and other indoor public places; travel to work or study; frontline worker status; physical activity; alcohol intake; weight (BMI); asthma; allergies; use of immune suppressant drugs, inhaled corticosteroids,  and bronchodilators; BCG vaccination status;  fruit, vegetable, and salad intake; and use of nutritional supplements.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Certain factors consequently emerged as being independently associated with increased odds of developing COVID-19.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

People of Asian\/Asian British ethnicity were more than twice as likely to become infected as their white counterparts. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Similarly, household overcrowding; socialising with other households in the preceding week; number of visits to indoor public places; a people-facing role other than in health and social care; and overweight\/obesity were all associated with a heightened risk.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And the greater the number of people sharing a household and the higher the number of visits made to indoor public places, the higher were the odds of becoming infected, the findings showed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But atopic (triggered by allergens) disease, which includes eczema\/dermatitis and hay fever\/allergic rhinitis, was independently associated with 23% lower odds of developing the infection than it was in those without atopic disease or asthma.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

 And among those who had atopic disease and asthma, the risk was even lower: 38%. This association held true even after factoring in the use of steroid inhalers. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Taking drugs to dampen down the immune system response (immunosuppressants) was also associated with 53% lower odds of COVID-19 infection, although this may reflect greater shielding from infection by these patients, say the researchers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But age, sex, other medical conditions, diet and supplement use weren\u2019t associated with infection risk.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is an observational study, and as such, can\u2019t establish cause. And the researchers acknowledge some limitations to their study.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These include no oversight of swab testing and reliance on the results of routine testing that will usually have been prompted by symptoms, so potentially missing those with symptomless infection. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Participants also volunteered themselves, so some ethnic minorities, particularly people of black, African and Caribbean ethnicities, were underrepresented in the study.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nevertheless, the researchers conclude: \u201cThis large, population-based prospective study shows that there is limited overlap between risk factors for developing COVID-19 versus those for intensive care unit admission and death, as reported in hospitalised cohorts.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Atopic (triggered by allergens) disease, which includes eczema\/dermatitis and hay fever\/allergic rhinitis, was independently associated with 23% lower odds of developing the infection than it was in those without atopic disease or asthma.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":7549,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[2294,19,919],"class_list":["post-7596","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-newsmakers","tag-covid-19","tag-health","tag-healthcare"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/zestmag.com\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7596","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/zestmag.com\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/zestmag.com\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zestmag.com\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zestmag.com\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7596"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/zestmag.com\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7596\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7597,"href":"https:\/\/zestmag.com\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7596\/revisions\/7597"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zestmag.com\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7549"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/zestmag.com\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7596"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zestmag.com\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7596"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zestmag.com\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7596"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}