Chapter 3. Aims of the present study

The purpose of this study was to investigate the association between atopic disorders and depression by using a large, general population birth cohort. The numbers I–IV hereafter refer to the original publications.

The aims of the present study were:

1. To examine the association between lifetime hospital admissions due to atopic disorders and depression (I).

2. To study, whether atopy verified by skin prick tests is associated with self-reported professionally diagnosed depression (II).

3. To investigate whether the association between atopic disorders and depression is dependent on the severity of depressive symptoms assessed with Hopkins Symptom Checklist-25, and/or whether it is dependent on the gender of a person (III).

4. To investigate, whether there is an association of parental atopy and sibling’s atopy with depression of a proband (IV).