Asthma is a chronic lung disease characterized as hypersensitivity to a variety of stimuli, such as tobacco smoke, mold, and pollen. The prevalence of asthma has been increasing in recent decades, especially in children. Some studies suggest that children who either live in a farm environment or have pets become less likely to develop asthma later in life, due to early exposure to elevated amounts of microorganisms. A large study was conducted in Norway to investigate the association between early exposure to animals and subsequent risk for asthma.

Using data from national registers, researchers identified 11,585 children known to have asthma at age 6 years out of the 276,281 children born in Norway between January 1, 2006 and December 31, 2009. Children whose parents were registered as "animal producers and related workers" during the child's first year of life were defined as being exposed to farm animals. Of the 958 children exposed to farm animals, 19 had an asthma diagnosis at age 6 .

(a) Do these data support previous findings that living in a farm environment is associated with lower risk of childhood asthma? Conduct a formal analysis and summarize your findings. Be sure to check any necessary assumptions.

(b) Is the relative risk an appropriate measure of association for these data? Briefly explain your answer.

(c) In language accessible to someone who has not taken a statistics course, explain whether these results represent evidence that exposure to farm animals reduces the risk of developing asthma. Limit your answer to no more than seven sentences.