[Investigation of trend in patients with pollinosis using web site: Comparison of these three years].
BACKGROUND
Recently, the number of patient with Japanese cedar pollinosis (JCP) has been increasing. In the last 3 years, the amount of pollen has been very volatile. In this study, we examined that whether the amount of pollen influenced symptoms and selfcare using web site.


METHODS
For this examination, the questionnaire on web site was used from March 15 to April 30, 2003, 2004, and 2005 respectively.


RESULTS
The rate of early treatments was high in the years when the amount of pollen was large, while the rate was low in the years when the amount of pollen was little. In the comparison of symptoms, the severity of the symptoms, in particular, nasal congestion, itchy eyes, watering eyes, and disturbance of sleep, was highly related to the amount of pollen. In addition, these symptoms were the severest in 2005. And the selfcare was also changing according to the amount of pollen.


CONCLUSIONS
We concluded the greater the amount of pollen was, the severer the nasal congestion, eye symptoms, and disturbance of sleep were. The questionnaire survey that uses web site is a limited investigation of patient who has the access to the Internet. However, in the trend survey of JCP patients, it seemed that was extremely meaningful.
Fujii
Tsukasa
T
Graduate School of Allied Health Sciences, Faculty of Medicine, Osaka university.
Ogino
Satoshi
S
Yamabe
Eri
E
D000328:Adult; D000393:Air Pollutants / Q000032:analysis; D000485:Allergens / Q000032:analysis*; D032485:Cryptomeria; D029781:Cupressus; D006801:Humans; D020407:Internet; D007564:Japan / Q000453:epidemiology; D008875:Middle Aged; D011058:Pollen; D006255:Rhinitis, Allergic, Seasonal / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000517:prevention & control; D012648:Self Care; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires
D000393:Air Pollutants; D000485:Allergens