Pregnant women offer insights for asthma research

massey-university

Wed Jun 27 2007 12:00:00 GMT+1200 (New Zealand Standard Time)

Pregnant women offer insights for asthma research

Wednesday, 27 June 2007, 9:44 am
Press Release: Massey University

Health researchers working on a groundbreaking asthma study to determine whether and why children raised on farms have greater asthma resistance want another 600 pregnant women from the lower North Island.

So far 200 women have joined the study, which involves filling out a questionnaire.

Dr Jeroen Douwes from the Centre for Public Health Research says asthma and allergies are becoming more common in New Zealand, but living on a farm may protect children against developing these conditions.

His team is studying what prevents people from developing asthma and allergies. They want pregnant women from both farming and non-farming backgrounds to help.

Dr Douwes says children whose mothers had been frequently exposed to farm animals during pregnancy had a 50 per cent reduction in risk of having asthma, hay fever or eczema.

His team is now investigating which specific aspects of animal contact during pregnancy are protective. They also want to find out more about how these factors affect the child’s immune system.

In order to do this, they are seeking pregnant women in the lower North Island. They need 800 women to provide enough data for results to be useful.

Dr Douwes says the results will help develop programmes to reduce asthma and allergy risk.

The centre has an $800,000 New Zealand Health Research Council grant for the three year study.

Dr Douwes says his team is looking for pregnant women from the lower North Island, including Taranaki, Taihape, and Hawke’s Bay.

ENDS

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