Association Between Peanut Allergy and Severe Asthma

Filed in archive Allergy: Research and Development , Asthma , Food Allergies on March 18, 2010

Credit: shanii

Among children and teenagers with asthma, those who also have peanut allergies may have more or more-severe asthma attacks, acording to a new study published online last month in the Journal of Pediatrics. According to a study of 160 5- to 18-year-old asthma patients, those with peanut allergies generally had more hospitalizations due to asthma than those without the food allergy. They also had a higher rate of treatment with oral corticosteroids. According to a related report:

Of children and teens with peanut allergy, 23 percent had ever been hospitalized for asthma after the age of 3. That compared with 16 percent of those without peanut allergy.

When it came oral steroids, only 28 percent of kids with peanut allergy had never needed treatment after age 3. That figure was 37 percent among those without the food allergy, according to lead researcher Dr. Alyson Simpson, of Alfred I. duPont Hospital for Children in Wilmington, Delaware.

When she and her colleagues accounted for other factors - like family history of asthma and any other allergies the children had - peanut allergy remained linked to higher risks of hospitalizations and oral steroid use.

It si not clear exactly how the two conditions are linked. Although food allergies can trigger asthma episodes, there was not enough data to show that peanut allergies led to more severe asthma attacks.