[Association between air pollen concentrations and seasonal allergies: synthesis of epidemiological studies published...

Many clinical studies have shown a causal link between exposure to pollens and clinical symptoms of atopy. However knowledge regarding the dose-response relationship between airborne pollen counts and the occurrence of clinical symptoms of seasonal pollinosis in the population, are not well known. The review of epidemiological studies published in this field for the last 15 years indicates that most epidemiological studies were carried out using a panel study design of well documented pollinosis subjects. These studies aim at estimating the correlation between daily airborne pollen counts measured by an aeropollinic surveillance network and clinical indicators characterising the health condition of the studied population. Nevertheless, because of many methodological weaknesses, especially regarding the methods of statistical analysis, the results of these studies do not allow to conclude that there is a short term association between airborne pollen counts and the incidence of symptoms of seasonal pollinosis. This field of research is a priority in order to assess the public health impact of pollens, and to use with efficacy the data collected by monitoring networks.