Allergen Avoidance to Reduce Asthma-Related Morbidity

Central to the reduction of the severity of allergic disease is a decrease in — and preferably the removal of — the offending environmental allergen. Such allergen avoidance is particularly relevant to the successful treatment of allergic asthma. However, statistically significant reductions in such asthma-inducing allergen concentrations have been difficult to accomplish. Until recently, strategies to reduce exposure to environmental allergens have not decreased asthma-related morbidity. In fact, a meta-analysis failed to demonstrate the efficacy of any environmental-control measures in reducing the severity of asthma.1 Such interventions, however, have usually focused on a single maneuver2 — for example, the use . . .