Hay Fever Symptoms Worse in Urban Areas

The first study to evaluate pollution levels with the intensity and duration of in-the-moment symptoms found that people who live in metropolitan areas experience much worse hay fever symptoms.

The team from the University of Manchester examined 36,145 symptom reports that were provided by more than 700 Britons over the course of five years, from 2016 to 2020, using the citizen science platform Britain Breathe.

In the study, which was written up in Scientific Reports, self-reported allergy symptoms in urban and rural areas are compared.

In all years, urban versus rural areas exhibited the app’s three symptoms, runny nose, watery eyes, sore eyes that runny nose, watery eyes, and runny nose, watery eyes, runny nose, watery eyes, runny nose, watery.

In order to investigate the association between symptom severity and air quality, the study linked real-time, geo-positioned reports with pollution measures, pollen measurements, and meteorological data from the U.K. Met Office.

The data demonstrates that, with the exception of 2017, metropolitan areas consistently have much higher symptom severity and longer illness duration. In no year were symptom severity levels significantly greater in rural areas.

The U.K.’s Office for National Statistics provided land-use data that were used to categorize symptom reports as urban or rural.

There was a strong relationship between symptom severity and ozone levels. Previous research has connected respiratory issues with ozone.

The team suggests that the fact that the frequency of days with moderate or higher O3 levels decreased slightly that year before dramatically increasing and remaining reasonably high in succeeding years could be one reason why 2017 is an exception.

And compared to previous years, 2017 was warmer and wetter, which could have had an impact on pollen counts, pollution, or participants’ biological reactions, the adder says.

According to immunologist Professor Sheena Cruickshank, one of the study’s authors, allergic respiratory illness is now much more common worldwide. Data on how environmental factors could affect hay fever, which affects people differently and can alter over the course of a lifetime, is scarce.

“This study provides evidence that urban surroundings may exacerbate hay fever and asthma symptoms. It also provides a broader picture of chronic health issues experienced by hay fever and asthma sufferers, as opposed to only observing those with more acute and/or problematic reactions.

“These differences in allergy symptoms may be due to variation in the levels of pollutants, pollen counts, and seasonality across land-use types.”

Professor of Computer Science Caroline Jay said, “The relationship between where people lived and the symptoms, they experience was clear, but why people experience worse symptoms in urban areas is complex. There may be many aspects of the city environment that have a negative impact on respiratory health.”

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