| Budget Amount *help |
¥1,750,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,600,000、Indirect Cost: ¥150,000)
Fiscal Year 2007: ¥650,000 (Direct Cost: ¥500,000、Indirect Cost: ¥150,000)
Fiscal Year 2006: ¥1,100,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,100,000)
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| Research Abstract |
From 1973 through 2006, 16 questionnaire surveys of subjective symptoms were conducted on the pupils of all the public elementary schools in Osaka Prefecture. We analyzed the trends in the prevalence rates of allergy symptoms in school children using the questionnaire results. In Osaka Prefecture, the prevalence rate of wheezing remained on the same level from 1973 through 1983, increased from 1983 through 1993, and thereafter leveled off again. The lifetime prevalence of atopic dermatitis sharply increased from 1985 through 1993, but decreased thereafter. Regarding rhinitis and eye itching, perennial symptom rates remained constant from 1993 onward, whereas the rates of seasonal symptoms presumably caused by pollinosis increased. Furthermore, a large percentage of the pupils with these allergy symptoms also suffered from other allergy symptoms, but regarding rhinitis and eye itching, there have only been a few complication cases in terms of both perennial and seasonal symptoms. During the past ten years or so, about 45% of pupils suffered from at least one of the above allergy symptoms, while about 55% suffered from none; these figures remained more or less the same during the past decade. The rate of pupils suffering from at least one symptom (wheezing, atopic dermatitis, perennial rhinitis or perennial eye itching) decreased, whereas the rate of pupils suffering only from seasonal rhinitis or seasonal eye itching presumably caused by pollinosis increased. The rate of pupils suffering from both perennial and seasonal symptoms remained constant. In recent years, it has been suggested that the rate of pupils suffering from pollinosis independently of perennial allergy diseases has increased.
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