There are countless benefits to living in the city, but resistance to allergies isn’t one of them. A new study
Urban kids are more likely to develop allergies.
published in Clinical Pediatrics found that children living in urban centers have a much higher prevalence of food allergies. “We have found for the first time that higher population density corresponds with a greater likelihood of food allergies in children,” said lead author Ruchi Gupta, M.D., an assistant professor of pediatrics at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine.
In urban centers, 9.8 percent of children have food allergies, compared to 6.2 percent in rural communities. Plus, kids in big cities are more than twice as likely to have peanut and shellfish allergies compared to rural communities. Similar trends have been seen for conditions including asthma.
Why are urban kids allergy prone?
“The results prove that environment has an impact on developing food allergies,” says Gupta. Experts just aren’t sure to what extent and what it is about an urban environment that makes the risk of allergy rise.
Studies have hypothesized everything from less exposure to bacteria to high levels of cortisol hormone as the reason for the rise in urban food allergies, but the fact is the verdict is still out on why urban children have higher rates of allergies.
But regardless of where you live, allergies are on the rise. The rate of childhood peanut allergies has more than tripled from 1997 to 2008. A recent study in Pediatrics estimated that eight percent of kids under age 18 have a food allergy. Out of those kids, 40 percent will have a severe reaction.
* Photography courtesy of Reflections of Life
The post Why are City Kids Allergy Prone? appeared first on Just The Facts Kid.
