Farm Children Are Less Likely To Develop Allergies And Asthma Later In Life, Researchers Claim

The number of children growing up with allergies is on the rise, and experts are continuously looking for ways to prevent it. Now, according to an international study, published in the journal Thorax, growing up on farms may help prevent allergies and asthma in adulthood.  

According to UPI, the same study found that women who spent their first 5 years on a farm have usually stronger lungs than those who spend their early years in the city or suburban areas. Previous research said that exposure to germs and potential allergens during your earlier childhood could actually protect you from developing allergies later. A team led by the University of Melbourne's Shyamali Dharmage, a professor in the Center for Epidemiology & Biostatistics, put this "hygiene hypothesis" to the test.

The team analyzed data from a survey of more than 10,000 adults, aged 26 to 54, in 14 countries in Europe, Scandinavia, and Australia. Researchers explained that there was about 64 percent reported that they spend their first five years of life in a rural village, small town or city suburb, about 27 percent lived in the city, and around 9 percent reported growing up on a farm.

Health Day reported that children who spent their early childhood on a farm were more likely to have had pets and older brothers or sisters. These children would have had experience sharing a bedroom but were less likely to have had a close family member with allergies. Although the study did not show the cause and effect relationship of living on farms and allergies, researchers found that farm kids had 54 percent less likely to have asthma or hay fever and 57 percent less likely to have allergic nasal symptoms than the adults who had grown up in an inner city.

It was also found that people who grew up in a village, town or suburb had a slightly less risk of developing asthma or hay fever growing up as an adult, and not less likely to have allergic nasal symptoms, than those raised in an inner city. Farm kids were also 50 percent less likely to have asthma than other groups.

"As any parent with a small child knows, childcare centers are hotbeds of viruses and bacteria, but it turns out that's nothing compared to a farm," said lead author Brittany Campbell of the University of Melbourne's Allergy & Lung Health Unit, in a released statement. "We found that for kids in villages, towns, suburbs and cities, not even daycare or living with cats, dogs, and older siblings came close to endowing the protective effects that appear to come with life on a farm," she added.

However, Campbell and her co-authors also pointed out that this is an observational study, so it cannot definitely prove that growing up on a farm offers benefits in terms of lowering the risk of allergies and asthma. Nor is this study proof of the hygiene hypothesis, reports Minn Post.

"We still don't know what exactly in farming is driving this association," Dharmage said in a podcast. "It could mean that ... you are exposed to a whole lot of microbes. It could be that you are exposed to less air pollution. It could be that you are more physically active. It could be related to the lifestyle of those living on farms, such as less medication use," he added.