The rapid rise in prevalence of eczema within the industrialised world illustrates the importance of environmental factors in aetiology, but the precise nature and mechanisms of action of these factors remains unclear. Genetic studies have identified key mechanisms in eczema predisposition and the interaction of genetic risk with environmental factor (GxE or G*E) is likely to account for a proportion of the observed rise in prevalence. This provides an opportunity to identify key environmental factors.

We propose to use existing datasets (including ALSPAC) to investigate interactions between the genetic risk loci and selected environmental factors.