ASSOCIATIONS BETWEEN AIRBORNE POLLEN COUN TS AND SEASONAL POLLINOSIS - REVIEW OF EPIDEMIOLOGIC STUDIES PUBLISHED FROM 1978 TO 1995

Many clinical studies have shown a causal link between exposure to pol lens and clinical symptoms of atopy. However knowledge regarding the d ose-response relationship between airborne pollen counts and the occur rence of clinical symptoms of seasonal pollinosis in the population, a re not well known. The review of epidemiological studies published in this field for the last 15 years indicates that most epidemiological s tudies were carried out using a panel study design of well documented pollinosis subjects. These studies aim at estimating the correlation b etween daily airborne pollen counts measured by an aeropollinic survei llance network and clinical indicators characterising the health condi tion of the studied population. Nevertheless, because of many methodol ogical weaknesses, especially regarding the methods of statistical ana lysis, the results of these studies do not allow to conclude that ther e is a short term association between airborne pollen counts and the i ncidence of symptoms of seasonal pollinosis. This field of research is a priority in order to assess the public health impact of pollens, an d to use with efficacy the data collected by monitoring networks.