Relation between asthma and food allergy

Abstract

Asthma is closely linked with severe reactions to food allergies; both are allergic disorders, and one study of food allergy fatalities found that the vast majority of patients who died from anaphylactic shock caused by food also had asthma. The bottom line is that if the patient have both food allergies and asthma symptoms, you should be aware of how asthma might affect allergies and vice versa. Asthma is an inflammatory condition of the airways that affects breathing. In an asthma attack, the bronchial tubes that draw air into lungs are constricted due to spasms of the muscles surrounding them. People with asthma vary greatly in the frequency and severity of their symptoms. Common asthma triggers include allergens, particulate matter and irritants (eggs,milk,banana,citrus food peanut and others).

Aims

To study the prevalence of food allergy in asthmatic patients in relation with obesity.

Patients and method

Across-sectional study carried out to the randomly selected patient attending to the center of asthma and allergy in Babylon city within the period from February2013 to august and data obtained include questionnaires and anthropometric measurement(body mass index, waist circumference and waist to hip ratio) .

Result

This study shows The overall mean age of asthmatic patients was (41.80 ± 13.54 years), majority (42.0%) of them were aged between 20-40 years. There was no significant difference between the mean age of male (43.60 ± 13.15 years) and female (41.03 ±13.68 years) (t= 1.067, df= 148, p= 0.288). Majority of the asthmatic patients were female (70.0%) and majority (53.3%) of the asthmatic patients were from urban area. Only (28.7%) of the asthmatic patients were employed. the distribution of patients with food allergy according to food types, allergy to spicy was the most common type of food allergy (71.9%), followed by citrus fruit (54.5%) and banana (24.8%). There were significant association between food allergy with residence and occupational categories There was significant association between food allergy with onset age of asthma(16-30)years.

Conclusion

Patient with asthma and asthma and food allergy consider as complicated condition so early detection of this problem in order to control the symptom and avoiding any risk aggravated the condition  as obesity .

Keywords: key words, orkforce sizing, job-shop production, holonic model