TY - JOUR T1 - Characterisation of asthma among adults with and without childhood farm contact JF - European Respiratory Journal JO - Eur Respir J SP - 1169 LP - 1173 DO - 10.1183/09031936.00127906 VL - 29 IS - 6 AU - A. Schulze AU - R. T. van Strien AU - G. Praml AU - D. Nowak AU - K. Radon Y1 - 2007/06/01 UR - http://erj.ersjournals.com/content/29/6/1169.abstract N2 - Childhood farm contact is associated with a lower prevalence of sensitisation and allergic rhinitis. Findings have been contradictory for asthma. The aim of the present study was to investigate the differences between farm and nonfarm subjects using objective measurements. A cross-sectional questionnaire study was performed among rural adults aged 18–44 yrs, of which 37% lived on a farm during the first 3 yrs of life and were thus referred to as “farm subjects”. Lung function, bronchial hyperresponsiveness (BHR) to methacholine and sensitisation were measured in a random sample. A total of 1,595 subjects were included in the analyses. Among farm subjects, sensitisation against inhalant allergens (odds ratio (OR) 0.7; 95% confidence interval 0.6–0.9), allergic rhinitis (0.5 (0.4–0.8)) and asthma diagnosis (0.7(0.4–1.1)) were less common than among nonfarm subjects. For BHR and lung function, no statistically significant differences were found between the two groups. Stratifying for sensitisation, farm subjects had a lower OR of asthma diagnosis (0.5 (0.3–1.0)) and a nonsignificantly reduced OR of BHR with sensitisation (0.8 (0.5–1.1)). The present study confirmed, using objective measurements, that farm subjects have a lower prevalence of symptoms and asthma diagnosis, while the prevalence of bronchial hyperresponsiveness does not differ. ER -