[Prevalence of allergic rhinitis in Beijing--a community survey]

To estimate the prevalence of allergic rhinitis (AR) in a community center in Beijing.

We randomly investigated a community with 13 900 inhabitents in Beijing by means of questionnaire survey.

A total of 2000 questionnaires was send out, and 1988 of them were collected, which included 952 males and 1036 females (age: 1 to 96 years old, 128 cases are younger than 14 years old. Among of them, 194 cases (9.76%) were diagnosed as having AR according to epidemiologic definition, including 14 children. The prevalence of AR was 9.68% in adults, with male 10.21% and female 9.18%, 10.94% in children. The prevalence in male are slightly higher than in female both with adults and children but without statistic significance.

The survey showed the incidence of AR in Beijing are 9.76% in population, adults 9.68%, children (younger than 12) 10.94%. AR patients are more likely to have other allergic diseases.