Pregnant Women Needed......

Pregnant women offer insights for asthma research

Health researchers working on a groundbreaking asthma study to determine whether and why children raised on farms have greater asthma resistance want another 500 pregnant women from the lower North Island.

So far 300 women have joined the study, which involves a series of questionnaires, keeping a diary of their baby’s health and a home visit from a nurse.

Dr Jeroen Douwes from the Centre for Public Health Research says asthma and allergies are very common in New Zealand, but living on a farm may protect children against developing these conditions. Research so far has indicates that children whose mothers had been frequently exposed to farm animals during pregnancy had a 50 per cent reduction in risk of having asthma, hay fever or eczema.

His team is now investigating which specific aspects of animal contact during pregnancy are protective. They also want to find out more about how these factors affect the child’s immune system.

In order to do this, they are seeking pregnant women from both farming and non-farming backgrounds to help. They need 800 women to provide enough data for results to be useful.

The results of this valuable study will help develop programmes to reduce asthma and allergy risk.

Women who are interested can contact the centre’s research nurse Heather Duckett on free phone 0800-000-544, or e-mail H.G.Duckett@massey.ac.nz.