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Epidemiology
Original research
Short-term exposure to pollen and the risk of allergic and asthmatic manifestations: a systematic review and meta-analysis
  1. Milja A Kitinoja,
  2. Timo T Hugg,
  3. Nazeeba Siddika,
  4. Daniel Rodriguez Yanez,
  5. Maritta S Jaakkola,
  6. Jouni J K Jaakkola
  1. Center for Environmental and Respiratory Health Research, University of Oulu, Oulu, Finland
  1. Correspondence to Professor Jouni J K Jaakkola; jouni.jaakkola{at}oulu.fi

Abstract

Background Several studies have assessed effects of short-term exposure to pollen on allergic and asthmatic manifestations. The evidence is inconclusive, and no meta-analysis has been published.

Objective To synthesise the evidence on the relations between short-term pollen exposure and the risk of allergic and asthmatic manifestations.

Methods We performed a systematic literature search of PubMed and Scopus databases up to the end of August 2018. In addition, we reviewed the reference lists of relevant articles. Two authors independently evaluated the eligible articles and extracted relevant information in a structured form. We calculated summary effect estimates (EE) based on the study-specific ORs and regression coefficients (β) by applying both fixed-effects and random-effects models.

Results 26 studies met the a priori eligibility criteria, and 12 of them provided sufficient information for the meta-analysis. The summary EE related to 10 grains per m³ increase in pollen exposure showed an 1% increase (EE 1.01, 95% CI 1.00 to 1.02) in the risk of lower respiratory symptoms and a 2% increase (EE 1.02, 95% CI 1.01 to 1.03) in the risk of any allergic or asthmatic symptom. Correspondingly, the risk of upper respiratory symptoms and ocular symptoms increased 7% (EE 1.07, 95% CI 1.04 to 1.09) and 11% (EE 1.11, 95% CI 1.05 to 1.17), respectively, in relation to such pollen exposure. Short-term exposure to pollen did not show any significant effect on daily lung function levels.

Conclusion Our results provide new evidence that short-term pollen exposure significantly increases the risks of allergic and asthmatic symptoms.

  • epidemiology
  • public health
  • allergy
  • asthma
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/

This is an open access article distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited, appropriate credit is given, any changes made indicated, and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/.

https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2019-029069

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    Footnotes

    • Contributors JJKJ and TTH conceived the study. MAK, DRY and TTH reviewed the articles, NS and MAK analysed the data under supervision of JJKJ. MAK, TTH, MSJ and JJKJ wrote the manuscript. All authors contributed to the intellectual content and approved the final version.

    • Funding This work was supported by the Research Council for Health, the Academy of Finland (grant numbers 266314, 267675, 267995 (APTA Consortium) and 24302585 (GLORIA Consortium)), and the University of Oulu Strategic Funding.

    • Disclaimer The funders had no role in study design, data collection or analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.

    • Competing interests None declared.

    • Patient consent for publication Not required.

    • Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.

    • Data availability statement Data are available on reasonable request.