James Gern, MD, professor, Allergy, Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine and Department of Pediatrics, was featured in a story about a national study he led that investigated the link between asthma in children living in inner cities and their prenatal and early-life exposure to cockroaches, mice, cats and dogs. 

While allergens from these creatures can make existing asthma worse, looking at the impact of exposure patterns early in life yielded unexpected results. 

“To our surprise, cockroaches and mice — the very things we thought were going to be problematic — seem to be associated with less asthma at age 7,” said Dr. Gern. 

Conversely, factors that were associated with increased risk of asthma by age seven included prenatal exposure to tobacco smoke, higher maternal stress, and experiencing depression as a child. 

Resources:

• "Pets and pests in infancy can lower asthma risk, UW-Madison study says," Wisconsin State Journal, September 19, 2017
• O'Connor GT, Lynch SV, Bloomberg GR, Kattan M, Wood RA, Gergen PJ, Jaffee KF, Calatroni A, Bacharier LB, Beigelman A, Sandel MT, Johnson CC, Faruqi A, Santee C, Fujimura KE, Fadrosh D, Boushey H, Visness CM, Gern JE. 2017. Early-life home environment and risk of asthma among inner-city children. J Allergy Clin Immunol. [Epub ahead of print]