以前在中国国内的时候，很多华人都没有听过“过敏”的概念。结果到了加拿大，才知道这是人家真真正正的身体不适，甚至有可能导致危险。
新人一到加拿大，就会可能被熟人告知可能会患过敏症，即使你在移居加拿大时本身没有过敏症，但随着在加拿大居住时间延长，患过敏症的风险也会增加。卑诗大学(UBC)新一项研究发现，移民加国超过10年的移民感染非食物性过敏病症比例，比移民少于10年的人士高出接近一成。
Jiayun Yao
据UBC人口及公共卫生研究员姚家云 (Jiayun Yao，译音) 与斯比希 (Hind Sbihi)，过去一些研究发现，由低收入国家移民西方国家的人士，出现过敏症的风险增加，加拿大是全球其中一个过敏症症比率高的国家。而在过去10年，研究主要集中于食物过敏，较少研究非食物过敏症，故此欲研究基因和环境因素与患上过敏感之间的关系，例如人们是否透过其他途径患上过敏症，例如皮肤接触。
他们分析加拿大社区健康调查（Canadian Community Health Survey）的资料，发现在移民加国少于10年的人士中，只有14.3%出现非食物性过敏病症；而移民本国超过10年的移民患上非食物性过敏病症的比率有23.9%，相差近10%；至于加国非移民群体中出现非食物性过敏病症则有29.6%。
Hind Sbihi
Sbihi说，这种现象被称为“健康移民效应”，也就是说移民一般比那些出生在加拿大的人更健康。然而，移民的健康状态随着他们在加拿大居住的岁月增加而逐渐下降，至少在过敏这一项是这样的。
Sbihi的工作内容研究这种现象是否也适用于非食物过敏。
本文禁止住转载。任何形式转载请联系作者（时光在路上 ｗｗｗ．ｔｉｍｅｚｌｓ．ｃｏｍ）。时光在路上保留所有权利
她说如果环境因素确实是导致过敏的原因，目前仍然不清楚这些环境因素到底是什么。
“这是一个非常，非常棘手的难解之谜，”她说。“也许这是你呼吸的空气和新的生活方式的组合...这两个因素共同导致了这一结果。”
本文禁止住转载。任何形式转载请联系作者（时光在路上 ｗｗｗ．ｔｉｍｅｚｌｓ．ｃｏｍ）。时光在路上保留所有权利
普遍患花粉过敏症
他们又称，俗称花粉过敏的过敏鼻炎是较普遍的非食物性过敏病例子，每5个加拿大人便有1个受到这情况所影响，这不但影响加国国民的生活质素，而且加重医疗护理费用，亦可能带来其他疾病。
此外，他们表示，将继续研究，以便确切找出箇中原因。
相关文章：
Allergy rates among new immigrants increase the longer they live in Canada
Researchers Jiayun Yao and Hind Sbihi were intrigued by a population health concern they were hearing about anecdotally: that immigrants had fewer allergies upon arriving in Canada, but that their allergy rates increased over time in Canada.
本文禁止全文转载。任何形式转载请联系作者（时光在路上 ｗｗｗ．ｔｉｍｅｚｌｓ．ｃｏｍ） Copyright © 2023. All Rights Reserved
Using data from the Canadian Community Health Survey, UBC school of population and public health researchers Yao and Sbihi, looked at the role that genetics and environmental factors play in the development of allergies.
In this Q&A, Yao and Sbihi discuss their findings, which were recently published in the Canadian Journal of Public Health.
本文禁止无授权转载 - 时光在路上 ｗｗｗ．ｔｉｍｅｚｌｓ．ｃｏｍ 保留所有权利
You studied how rates of non-food allergies vary between recent immigrants, long-time immigrants and non-immigrants in Canada. What did you find?
Hind Sbihi: By analyzing data collected in the Canadian Community Health Survey, we found a distinctly lower prevalence of non-food allergies among immigrants compared with non-immigrants.
Among immigrants who had lived in Canada for less than 10 years, only 14.3 per cent had non-food allergies, while the rates for immigrants in Canada for more than 10 years were 23.9 per cent compared with 29.6 per cent among non-immigrants.
What prompted you to study non-food allergies?
HS: We know that there is an epidemic increase in allergies worldwide, although the increase varies geographically.
We knew from previous research that the risk of developing allergies increases in those emigrating from low-income countries to Western countries. With Canada having some of the highest allergy rates in the world, we wanted to know if that was also true here.
本文禁止全文转载。任何形式转载请联系作者（时光在路上 ｗｗｗ．ｔｉｍｅｚｌｓ．ｃｏｍ） Copyright © 2023. All Rights Reserved
Also, in the past decade, there has been a lot of focus on food allergies from the media, public and researchers, but less on non-food allergies. It’s also critical to raise awareness for allergies that are a result of other routes of exposure such as inhalation and contact with skin.
Which non-food allergies are on the rise and how do they impact health?
Jiayun Yao: Allergic rhinitis, more commonly known as hay fever, is a good example of non-food allergy. One out of every five Canadians is affected by this condition, which not only affects the quality of life of Canadians but also incurs health-care costs to manage and control the symptoms. Often, people with this condition may also develop co-existing allergic conditions such as asthma, respiratory infections and breathing difficulties during sleep.
本文禁止全文转载。任何形式转载请联系作者（时光在路上 ｗｗｗ．ｔｉｍｅｚｌｓ．ｃｏｍ） Copyright © 2023. All Rights Reserved
What do your results tell us about the link between genetic and environmental factors in the development of allergies in Canada?
本文禁止全文转载。任何形式转载请联系作者（时光在路上 ｗｗｗ．ｔｉｍｅｚｌｓ．ｃｏｍ） Copyright © 2023. All Rights Reserved
JY: Our study highlighted the unique opportunity to investigate allergies in migrant populations, who are going through a natural experiment, in which the environment around them changed dramatically in a relatively short period of time.
By using this data, we saw that immigrants’ rates of non-food allergies increased the longer they were in Canada.
This tells us that environmental factors are carrying more weight in the development of allergic conditions in Canada. These factors could be things like air pollution, levels of sanitization and dietary choices, but we would need to do more research to pinpoint what those factors are.
Source: https://news.ubc.ca/2017/01/27/allergy-rates-among-new-immigrants-increase-the-longer-they-live-in-canada/
