Study
p. 32 · Read in the full issue
NZ Asthma Study
WHY ARE Tokelauan children twice as susceptible to asthma in New Zealand as in their own is lands? Research has shown the trend is so; other islanders have shown a similar in crease in respiratory complaints in New Zealand, but it has been more pronounced for the Tokelauans. A group of 500 Toke lauan children in Wellington’s Porirua and Hutt Valley areas were studied in 1986, to bring old data up to date, and a New Zea land medical team is now off to the To kelaus to make comparative tests with children in the islands.
Team leader Dr Julian Crane, senior medical lecturer at Wellington School of Medicine, is accompanying a physiologist and a technician to the islands and will spend six weeks on Fakaofu atoll to com plete the survey. He says the differences could be caused by environment: the is lands have relatively few flowering plants and the open houses and outdoor lifestyle mean there is less dust.
New Zealand, he points out, has many species of grasses; and house dust mites in clothing and carpets also can trigger an al lergic reaction.