People who suffer from allergic conditions have a lower risk for developing COVID-19, according to a new U.K.

Monthly follow-up questionnaires captured incident COVID-19 and the researchers used logistic regression models to estimate the associations between potential risk factors and the odds of developing COVID-19.

Including people who suffer from asthma, there was a 38% lower risk of infection – even after accounting for the use of steroid inhalers.

Contrary to past studies, the researchers found that older age, male sex and other underlying conditions were not linked to a higher risk of infection,.

Alternatively, people of Asian and Asian British ethnicity, household overcrowding, socializing indoors with other households, holding a front-line occupation excluding health and social care and raised body mass index or obesity were independently associated with a heightened risk

Adults who were Asian or Asian British had twice the risk of testing positive compared with White U.K

adults and the greater the number of people sharing a household and the higher the number of visits made to indoor public places, the higher the odds of getting COVID-19

The researchers said the study shows that there is limited overlap between risk factors for developing COVID-19 and those for ICU admission and death, as reported in hospitalized cohorts