THE PAIRED CASE-CONTROL STUDY BETWEEN AR IN ADULTS AND INDOOR POLLUTANTS

Background Allergic rhinitis (AR) is a very common disease with an increasing prevalence to 10-20%over the last 40 years all over the world including developing countries like China. But the reasons havenot yet been known clearly. In recent years, There is an overwhelming evidence that sensitization toindoor allergens is a major risk factor for the development of clinical atopic disease because manypeople spend much of their life indoors (Kaiser,-H-B., 2004).Objective to investigate the association between AR in adults and indoor pollutants: NO2, PM2.5,formaldehyde, and mould in air and dust mites in dust.Methods Using 1:1 paired matching case control study design, we recruited 100 pairs of adults ARpatients and the relevant control from the E.N.T.department of Renmin Hospital of Peking university,and detected formaldehyde in their kitchens and bedrooms, dust mites and fungi in bedrooms, Nitrogendioxide (NO2) in kitchens .The results of detections and questionnaires were analyzed by signal andmultiple conditional regression model of SAS8.2 software.Results From the study we can see that AR is significantly associated with bedroom formaldehyde?OR =1.41,95%CI?1.03-1.92?,kitchen formaldehyde(OR= 1.64?95%CI?1.10-2.44),total fungi(OR=1.53?95%CI?1.19-1.96) and Dp (OR=1.58?95%CI?1.12-2.24) among indoor air pollutants afteradjusting for exposure to dusts ,present smoking and family AR or asthma history. In addition, afterranking the concentration of air pollutants into 4 quarters, there was a definite dose-responserelationship between adults AR and total fungi, formaldehyde and Dp. But only the fourth rank hadsignificantly statistic difference between AR and bedroom formaldehyde(OR=4.05 ? 95%CI ?1.42-11.54),kitchen formaldehyde(OR= 31.94?95%CI?2.60-392.54) ,total fungi(OR= 2.64?95%CI?1.25-5.56) and Dp (OR= 2.44?95%CI?1.08-5.50) after being adjusted.Conclusions Adults with AR had a preferential sensitization to the total fungi, formaldehyde and Dpspecies. Furthermore there was a definite dose-response relationship between the adults AR andindoor air total fungi, formaldehyde and dust Dp exposure.