Premium
Dependence of immediate hypersensitivity on the month of birth
Author(s) -
BJÖRKSTÉN F.,
SUONIEMI I.
Publication year - 1976
Publication title -
clinical and experimental allergy
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.462
H-Index - 154
eISSN - 1365-2222
pISSN - 0954-7894
DOI - 10.1111/j.1365-2222.1976.tb01894.x
Subject(s) - allergy , medicine , pollen , physiology , population , immunology , biology , botany , environmental health
Summary This report describes a retrospective study of 1421 patients allergic to pollens and 728 patients allergic to animal epithelia. In males, but not in females, the month‐of‐birth distribution differed significantly from that in the total population of Finland ( P < 0·01 in pollen allergy and P < 0·05 in epithelium allergy). The phenomenon was most clearly apparent in boys aged 10–14 born in 1960–4 ( P < 0·01 in pollen allergy and P < 0·001 in epithelium allergy). When the relative risk of immediate hypersensitivity was plotted as a function of the month of birth, a two‐phasic curve with maxima in March–May and September–November was obtained for both pollen allergy and animal epithelium allergy. The results indicate that boys, but perhaps not girls, have a sensitive period early in life during which one or more environmental factor and seasonal variations in this factor influence the development of subsequent immediate hypersensitivity.