Key clinical point: People from a tertiary care center database were at a significantly increased risk of getting eosinophilic esophagitis (EoE) when they lived close (<1 mile) to a commercial swine farm or in an area with a high density of swine farm operations.
Major finding: Odds of EoE were ~2.5 times higher in participants who had undergone upper endoscopy and lived in an area with <1 mile proximity to a permitted swine facility (adjusted odds ratio [aOR] 2.56; 95% CI 1.33-4.95) or where the density of swine farms was >10 farms per census tract (aOR 2.76; 95% CI 1.30-5.84).
Study details: This case-control study including 401 patients with EoE and 1852 control individuals who had undergone endoscopy but did not show any esophageal pathology from a tertiary care center and 9 04 patients with EoE and 4074 endoscopy-based control participants from a pathology database.
Disclosures: This study was partly funded by a grant from the US National Institutes of Health. The authors declared no conflicts of interest.
Source: Cotton CC et al. Proximity to swine farming operations as a risk factor for eosinophilic esophagitis. JPGN Rep. 2023;4(4):e391 (Nov 8). doi: 10.1097/PG9.0000000000000391
