Original Research Article
Year: 2019 | Month: April-March | Volume: 4 | Issue: 2 | Pages: 70-75
Possible Factors Associated with Anti-Allergic Agent Production
Shigeru Suna
Department of Medical Technology, Graduate School of Health Sciences, Kagawa Prefectural University of Health Sciences, Takamatsu, Kagawa, Japan
ABSTRACT
Background: Type 1 allergy is increasing worldwide, including Japan, where climate change is undergoing due to urbanization and global warming. Therefore, the production of anti-allergic agents that reflect demand should be increasing. It is also well known that climatic factors and air pollutants are closely related to allergic reactions. Therefore, the production of anti-allergic agents should be influenced by these factors.
Method: To clarify the factors associated with anti-allergic agent production, year-trend data of anti-allergic agent production, number of asthma patients among school children and environmental factors of Japanese urban areas such as relative humidity, ambient temperature and photochemical oxidant were analyzed utilizing multiple linear regression model.
Result: The anti-allergic agent production between 1991 and 2015 showed a linear increase trend. On the other hand, the number of asthma patients among school children has increased linearly from 1991 to 2010, but it has been observed that the number of asthma patients has begun to decline slightly due to the decrease in the number of entrants since 2010. The annual relative humidity tends to decrease, the annual ambient temperature tends to rise, and the annual photochemical oxidant concentration tends to increase. Stepwise linear regression analysis revealed that the number of asthma patients among school children and the annual relative humidity were significant independent variables.
Conclusion: A statistically significant decline in humidity in urban areas of Japan may increase the incidence of type 1 allergic reactions and lead to the promotion of anti-allergic agent production.
Keywords: Anti-allergic agent, Urbanization, Climate change, Type 1 allergy, Relative humidity