The relationship between the number of patients with cedar fever and the dosage of medication during cedar pollination season in Fukuoka City, Japan

Abstract

Rationale Japanese cedar pollen is the most important cause of seasonal rhinoconjunctivitis in Japan. More than 10% of Japanese people suffer from cedar early spring. To prove the importance of pollen counting and forecast, we tried to correlate the number of patients seeking, medications for rhinitis by prescription and OTC products with pollen counting. Methods We performed cedar pollen counting, using the volumetric and the gravitational methods. We gathered the information on the number of cedar pollinosis patients seen at the ENT clinics and the type and amount of the rhinitis medications purchased at the drugstores in Fukuoka City. We performed statistical analysis of the data. In addition, we analyzed the results of daily symptom logs of patients with cedar pollinosis during pollen season. Results The analysis indicated a significant positive correlation between the pollen counts during previous week and the dosage of medications. Conclusions Our data indicate that cedar pollen counts are useful for estimating the subsequent symptoms and medication use for cedar pollinosis. This correlation may be useful in reducing the morbidity and cost of treating cedar pollinosis in this region.