Researchers at Columbia University have released a statement sure to please cat-loving parents everywhere. Seems children up to age five who live in a household containing a cat are less likely to develop asthma and cat allergies than children who grow up in cat-free homes.

The cat study is part of a larger project, initiated in 1998, designed to explore health risks associated with air pollution on pregnant women and their babies. As part of the broader scope of the project, exposure to both indoor and outdoor air pollutants, allergens, and pesticides are being studied in situations controlled for socioeconomic factors and exposure to additional air pollutants such as tobacco smoke. The Columbia research team is affiliated with the university’s Center for Children’s Environmental Health (CCCEH), a part of the Mailman School of Public Health.

The research team discovered that by the time a child reaches age three in a home with a cat, the child develops antibodies to cat-related allergens although he or she is likely to develop a wheeze at about this time, too. In many cases, the wheezing stopped by the time the child reached age five. When children with cats developed the wheeze, it was less likely to progress onto asthma than in cat-free homes.

Calling it a complex relationship between cats and asthma symptoms, Rachel Miller, MD, and senior author of the study, considers the team’s findings to be important in understanding the high rate of asthma in locations such as New York City. Full details have been published in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology.

Source: Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University