SAN ANTONIO -- Foreign-born children who did not have allergies
when they came to the U.S. became more likely to develop them
after 10 years of residence, researchers found. Compared with
foreign-born children who had lived in the U.S. for 2 or fewer
years, children who lived in the U.S. for over a decade were at
three times the risk for developing any allergic disorder
(adjusted odds ratio [aOR] 3.04, 95% CI 1.08 to 8.60, P=0.03),
particularly eczema (aOR 4.93, 95% CI 1.18 to 20.62, P=0.03) and
hay fever (aOR 6.25, 95% CI 1.70 to 22.96, P=0.006), according
to Jonathan Silverberg, MD, PhD, of St. Luke's-Roosevelt
Hospital Center in New York, N.Y., and colleagues. Although
their risk of developing allergies does increase the longer they
stay in the U.S., foreign-born children start out with an
advantage when it comes to allergies. So, overall, birthplace
outside of the U.S. and having one or more parents born outside
of the U.S. offered a protective benefit against most allergic
conditions (P<0.0003), they rep