Rates ratios increased with increasing age and were more prominent in women
WEDNESDAY, July 31, 2019 (HealthDay News) — Patients receiving gastric acid inhibitors have an increase in prescriptions of anti-allergic drugs, according to a study published online July 30 in Nature Communications.
Galateja Jordakieva, Ph.D., from the Medical University of Vienna, and colleagues analyzed data from health insurance records covering 97 percent of the Austrian population from 2009 to 2013. Data were obtained on prescriptions of gastric acid inhibitors, anti-allergic drugs, and other commonly prescribed drugs as controls.
The researchers found that the rate ratios for anti-allergic prescriptions following gastric acid-inhibiting drug prescriptions were 1.96 and 3.07 in overall and regional Austrian data sets, respectively. These findings were more prominent in women and were seen for all gastric acid-inhibiting substances assessed. The rate ratios increased from 1.47 for those aged younger than 20 years to 5.20 for those aged older than 60 years.
“We observed a highly significant increase in prescription of drugs relieving allergic symptoms in patients who were on treatment with gastric acid inhibitors of any class,” the authors write. “Our findings confirm an epidemiological association between gastric acid suppression and development of allergic symptoms, in line with previous mechanistic animal trials and human observational studies.”
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