Journal of Allergy & Therapy

Abstract

Influence of Air Quality Conditions on Asthmatic Patient Visits in Kuwait

Sabbah I, Nermina Arifhodzic, Mona Al-Ahmad, Ali Al-Enizi, Aneesah Al-Haddad and Nada Al-Ajmi

Background: Few studies have investigated the relationship between air quality and asthma in Kuwait. However there is still a lacking in the observations and methodology to precisely analyze the data. Objective: We aim to investigate the relationship of pollen count, weather conditions and air pollutants to the number of visits for asthma in Kuwait.

Methods: The daily number of adult visits for symptomatic asthmatic patients to Al-Rasheed Allergy Centre in Kuwait has been recorded during the entire year of 2012. Pollen counts are obtained from the same Center. The method of superposed epoch (Chree analysis) has been used to study the behavior of weather parameters and air pollutants on the days with high number of patients.

Results: A good correlation (r=0.51) is obtained between airborne pollens and asthmatic patients. We identify 35 days in 2012 with high number of asthma patients. The wind speed increases one day before the increase in the numbers of asthmatic patients. The daily averaged values of relative humidity increase with the number of asthmatic patients while the visibility decreases. In general we find no link between air pollutants and the number of asthmatic patients. The major dust storms of 2012 have no effect on the number of asthmatic patients.

Conclusions: The pattern of the pollen counts is persistent; it exhibits a consistent annual cycle. The local pollens play the major role in significant asthma development. The increase in wind speed helps to spread the pollens in air and consequently increase the number of patients. The increase in relative humidity may trigger asthmatic symptoms. In general we find no direct association between the number of asthmatic patients and levels of air pollutants or dust storms. More convincing epidemiology data are needed, to causally confirm relationship between air quality and asthma in our environment.