Novel Risk Factors for Allergic Rhinitis in Korean Elementary School Children: ARCO-kids Phase II in a Community

Purpose: Allergic rhinitis (AR) is a multifactorial disease whose genetic and environmental risk factors have been studied for decades. Many pediatric studies have pointed out the familial history of allergy, hygiene hypothesis, breast-feeding, pet ownership, and diets as risk factors of AR. However, most of factors are still up for debate. This preliminary report aimed to confirm the known risk factors and find the novel risk factors for AR in the Korean pediatric population.

Methods: A bi-seasonal, winter and summer, study in 2 elementary schools included all students whose parents completed the questionnaire of medical and social histories, quality of life, infant and early-childhood history, and the living styles. Skin prick tests and endoscopic examinations were conducted on all participants.

Results: Among total 1,020 children, 338 participants had AR. The multivariate logistic regression analysis highlighted 6 factors: male gender (OR, 2.10; 95% CI, 1.32-3.33), older age (1.65; 1.03-2.65), previous history of allergic conjunctivitis (14.25; 4.99-40.74), asthma (2.73; 0.96-7.76) and pneumonia (0.39; 0.19-0.82), and an hour increase in daily playing time (0.90; 0.80-1.00).

Conclusions: Lack of pneumonia in early childhood and short playing time are newly found risk factors for Korean pediatric AR in this study confirming male gender, older age and previous history of allergic conjunctivitis and asthma as the risk factors.