Does farm exposure in early life influence the risk of subsequent asthma?

2021.01.21 | Graduate School of Health

Friday 29 January at 10:00, Signe Timm defends her PhD dissertation entitled "Asthma and farm exposure in early life and across generations".

Asthma prevalence has been rising worldwide during the latest century, and the underlying causes are still largely unknown. Numerous studies have shown lower prevalence of asthma among people born and raised on a farm than their counterparts in the cities. Despite extensive research, it still remains unanswered whether the farm effect is restricted to the people living on the farms, whether the next generation may benefit from the farm exposure in their parents’ early life and whether the farm effect is just the result of selective migration and not a biological effect of the farming environment. The aim of the work conducted in this thesis aims was to contribute to a better understanding of the early origin of asthma.

The PhD project is nested within the two large European cohorts ECRHS (European Community Respiratory Health Survey) and RHINESSA (Respiratory Health In Northern Europe, Spain and Australia). The results show a significant urban-rural gradient in asthma prevalence with decreasing levels of asthma across six levels of urbanisation ranging from inner city to farm with livestock. The project showed no evidence, that farm exposure in prior generations influence the risk of asthma. In addition, the project show that selective migration is not an important explanatory factor for the association between early life farm exposure and lower asthma prevalence.

The summary is written by the PhD student.   

The defence is public and takes place online via Zoom. Please read the attached press release for more information.

Contact:

PhD student Signe Timm

Mail: signe.timm@rsyd.dk

Phone: (+45) 25318606

Read full press release