Objective To assess the risk of clinical symptoms of allergic rhinitis (AR occurrence) contributed by indoor environmental pollution.
Methods Published studies on the association between indoor environmental pollution and AR occurrence were searched in PubMed, ScienceDirect, and Google Scholar databases from January 1, 2003 to December 31, 2017, and the Combie cross-sectional study evaluation tool was used to evaluate the quality of included literatures. The OR and 95% confidence interval (CI) of AR occurrence manifested within one year of exposure to the most widely studied and representative indoor environmental pollution, such as environmental tobacco smoke (ETS), pets, and molds, were analyzed in Stata-MP 14.1 software to generate plots.
Results Finally 16 qualified cross-sectional studies were included. Specifically, 10 studies showed that prolonged exposure to ETS would increase the risk of AR occurrence (ORcombined=1.086, 95%CI:1.039-1.135; P < 0.001); 7 studies showed that exposure to pets would increase the risk of AR occurrence (ORcombined=1.175, 95%CI:1.001-1.378; P=0.048); 9 articles showed that exposure to indoor molds would increase the risk of AR occurrence (ORcombined=1.331, 95%CI:1.172-1.512; P < 0.001).
Conclusion Exposures to ETS, pet, and molds are risk factors of AR occurrence. Indoor environmental pollution control and health education for patients are key to AR prevention.
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