The Comparative Role of Gene and Environment on the Development of Childhood Allergic Respiratory Diseases

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ISEE-472 Objective: Both genetic heredity and environmental elicitation are considered determining factors for the development of childhood allergic diseases with their prevalence and morbidity increasing in most parts of the world. This investigation studied the relative significance of either factor on developing childhood allergic diseases. Material and Methods: Parents of 425 children identified from a previously established birth-cohort, aged 4 to 7 years old, were successfully interviewed by telephone for their indoor environmental conditions after child's birth and current health status of the children. Multiple logistic regression was applied afterwards to examine the associations between indoor exposures, and the development of childhood illness with adjustment for parents' atopic status. Results: Initial analysis showed that paternal atopic history was more critical than that of maternal's on developing childhood allergic diseases. Population was then divided into 4 groups by the presence of environmental risk factor and paternal atopic status (− −, + −, − +, + +); children without paternal atopic history and environmental exposure (− − group) were the reference group for comparison. Preliminary results suggested environmental factors, such as ever water damage at home, visible mold, incense burning, and pet at home, did not appear to impose significant risk without the presence of paternal atopic heredity (+ −) on the development of physician-diagnosed atopic asthma or allergic rhinitis. However, a statistically significant risk was identified for those children with paternal atopic history (− +), odds ratio (OR) = 1.85 ∼ 2.36 for atopic asthma, and OR = 2.17 ∼ 3.55 for allergic rhinitis. The degree of risk seemed to elevate for these children if the environmental risk was also concurrently present (+ +) as a significant OR became 2.24 ∼ 4.63 for allergic rhinitis. Conclusions: The current data analysis imply that genetic heredity can be a more dominant risk, whereas environment exposure may be more an aggravating factor, on the development of childhood allergic diseases in Taiwanese population.