Sibling effect on atopy in children of patients with asthma

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Abstract

Clinical & Experimental Allergy
Volume 33 Issue 2 Page 170 - February 2003

Sibling effect on atopy in children of patients with asthma

G. H. Koppelman* , D. F. Jansen, J. P. Schouten, S. van der Heide, E. R. Bleecker, D. A. Meyers and D. S. Postma

Summary

Background Multiple population studies have shown the presence of a sibling effect on atopic disease. However, it is unclear if the sibling effect is also of importance in subjects who are genetically at high risk for the development of atopy.

Objective To study the presence of a sibling effect on markers of atopy (serum total IgE, specific IgE, skin tests) and asthma (bronchial hyper-responsiveness to histamine) in families ascertained through a parent with asthma.

Methods First-degree offspring in 200 asthma families were studied (n = 541). Mixed effects regression models were used to account for the dependence of the observations within a family, and to adjust for possible confounding variables.

Results Multiple regression analysis showed that having older siblings was inversely related to atopy, defined as 2, 3, 4, or 5 skin tests (P = 0.07-0.009). In addition, family size (number of siblings) had a significant protective effect on the presence of specific IgE to common aeroallergens (P = 0.03). Exposure to cigarette smoke in the first 3 years of life significantly increased the risk of having specific IgE to common aeroallergens (P = 0.04). No sibling effect was detected for serum total IgE or bronchial hyper-responsiveness to histamine.

Conclusions This study shows a protective sibling effect on the presence and severity of atopy but not on bronchial hyper-responsiveness in children who are genetically at risk. The identification of the sibling effect in high-risk families stresses the need to understand the basis of this effect, in order to design future prevention programmes.

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Authors:

G. H. Koppelman

D. F. Jansen

J. P. Schouten

S. van der Heide

E. R. Bleecker

D. A. Meyers

D. S. Postma

Keywords

asthma

atopy

IgE

sibling effect

skin test

specific IgE

Submitted 1 November 2001; revised 10 June 2002; accepted 30 November 2002

Affiliations

*Department of Pulmonary Rehabilitation, Beatrixoord, Haren, Departments ofPulmonology and§Allergology, University Hospital Groningen,Department of Epidemiology and Statistics, University of Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands and¶Center for Human Genomics, Wake Forest University School of Medicine, Winston-Salem, North Carolina, USA

Correspondence

D. S. Postma, Department of Pulmonology, PO Box 30.001, 9700 RB Groningen, The Netherlands. E-mail: d.s.postma@int.azg.nl

To cite this article
Koppelman, G. H., Jansen, D. F., Schouten, J. P., van der Heide, S., Bleecker, E. R., Meyers, D. A. & Postma, D. S.
Sibling effect on atopy in children of patients with asthma.
Clinical & Experimental Allergy 33 (2), 170-175.
doi: 10.1046/
j.1365-2222.2003.01591.x

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