thumb sucking nail-biting and atopic sensitization as well as asthma and hay fever
The subject of the study is on thumb sucking nail-biting and atopic sensitization as well as asthma and hay fever. The observation which spurred the study was whether early life exposures to any microbial organisms led to the reduction of risks of one developing any allergies. The reason why these scientists decided to carry out the test was to confirm the hypothesis that early life exposures have any effect on the risk of developing allergies. The background of the study is that common childhood habits like thumb sucking and nail-biting in childhood are said to have an impact on people’s health. The research aims at providing an evidence to the claim or rejects the hypothesis.
The study hypothesises that early life exposures to microbiology organisms decrease the risk of developing allergies (Lynch et al., 2016). Hence, the study tested the hypothesis of children that suck their thumbs and bite their nails have lower risks of development of atopy, asthma as well as hay fever in the population-based birth cohort which is adhered to in adulthood.
To address the hypothesis, the scientists carried a study where they collected data from parents concerning the children’s thumb sucking and other nail-biting habits when the children are 5,7 up to 11 years. Through the use of atopic sensitization, the associations between nail-biting and sucking of thumbs during childhood are tested against atopic sensitization and hay fever. Logistic regression involves statistical model which utilizes the logistic function in the modelling of binary dependent variables, and other complex extensions exist. Logistic regression is used undeceiving data and explaining the relationship of one dependent binary variable and another ordinal independent variable (Gasso, 2019). The results indicated that children that suck thumbs or do nail-biting have less likelihood of having atopic sensitization in adulthood and childhood. The results mean that it is right to encourage children to engage in sucking their thumbs and biting their nails which will help in lowering the risks of development of atopic sensitization.
References
https://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/138/2/e20160443
Gasso, G. (2019). Logistic regression.
Lynch, S. J., Sears, M. R., & Hancox, R. J. (2016). Thumb-sucking, nail-biting, and atopic sensitization, asthma, and hay fever. Pediatrics, 138(2), e20160443.