A Multicenter Study Assessing Risk Factors and Aeroallergens Sensitization Characteristics in Children with Self-Reported Allergic Rhinitis in China

Abstract

Background

Up to now, epidemiological studies on allergy rhinitis (AR) have primarily focused on determining the risk of disease in Chinese adults, with the majority of them designed by single centers, while cross-sectional and epidemiological data describing allergic sensitization in children with self-reported AR are scarce.

Objective

This study was estimating of the latest information about the sensitization patterns and risk factors of clinical AR to develop effective strategies for the prevention and treatment of AR.

Methods

We conducted a cross-sectional survey between January 2020 and June 2021 involving children from seven cities in China who reported AR. A total of 762 children participated in this survey. To evaluate the risk factors and specific sensitization patterns of clinical AR through questionnaires and specific immunoglobulin E to 11 aeroallergens.

Results

Of the 762 patients, 593 (77.8%) had at least one positive IgE level. Aged 7–14 years (OR 1.503, (95% CI 1.058–2.136), P = 0.023); With allergic conjunctivitis (OR 1.843, (95% CI 1.297–2.620), P = 0.001) and living in the Eastern (OR 1.802, (95% CI 1.263–2.573), P = 0.001) all elevated the risk of clinical AR associated with aeroallergens. The sensitization rates of D. pteronyssinus and D. farinae were higher than those of other allergens in the 0–6 and 7–14 years old age groups. The most common aeroallergens among self-reported children with AR in the eastern were D. farinae (74.9%) and D. pteronyssinus (74.3%), while in the western were mugwort (60.0%) and marguerite (56.6%). Majority of sIgE-positive subjects were sensitized to three or more of the tested pollen allergens in the Western (52.1%), compared with 5.7% in the Eastern.

Conclusion

There was an apparent geographic variation in childhood allergies in China. Age factors also had strong impacts on the allergen sensitization rate of children, but these impacts differed across regions.

Keywords:

• allergic rhinitis
• specific immunoglobulin E
• cross-sectional survey
• aeroallergen
• children

Ethics Approval and Consent to Participate

This study was conducted in accordance with the declaration of Helsinki and approved by the ethics committee of the First Affiliated Hospital of Guangzhou Medical University (approval number: GYFYY-2017-18).

Acknowledgments

We thank everyone involved in the collection, detection, and date management of the serum samples.

Disclosure

The authors declare that they have no competing interests in this work.

Additional information

Funding

This study was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (81802076 and 81871736), SKLRD (MS-201906, Z-202209), Guangzhou Science and Technology Project of traditional Chinese Medicine and Integrated traditional Chinese and Western Medicine (20202A011017),and the Guangzhou Science and Technology Foundation (202102010327). Thanks to the Biobank for Respiratory Diseases at the National Clinical Research Center for Respiratory Disease (BRD-NCRCRD, Guangzhou, Southern China).