Pollen allergy and health behavior: patients trivializing their disease

Allergies are increasing in prevalence worldwide, with socioeconomic impacts and effects on quality of life. The aim of this study was to explore the health behavior and the utilization of different treatment options via questionnaires and to investigate for relationships of the above with socioeconomic factors. This cross-sectional survey was carried out among pollen allergic subjects in 2016, using questionnaires. A total of 679 allergics participated in the study (61.2% females). Their average age was 26.8 +/- 8.8years. Their symptom severity was 6.1 +/- 1.9, measured on a 10-step scale and symptoms lasted for 9.0 +/- 6.8weeks during pollen season. Of all allergics, 9.1% were not aware of the causative agent of their allergy and 17.4% had never undergone allergy testing. Symptoms, especially in females, had strong impact on social life, everyday routines and sleep quality. Almost half of the participants treated their allergy without medical supervision, while only 32.3% sought medical support. Nevertheless, three quarters reported self-management of their allergies with oral antihistamines. Compared to males, females sought significantly more medical support, medications and allergen avoidance strategies. Knowledge about allergy increased the likelihood of treatment under supervision of a medical expert than no treatment, as well as symptom severity and interaction between female gender and symptom severity. The attitude of not considering allergy as a serious disease significantly reduced the likelihood of undergoing specific immunotherapy. This survey not only highlights the negative impact of pollen allergies on everyday life of allergics, but also that allergies are often neglected and untreated because of their trivialization by allergic subjects themselves

Estimating the abundance of airborne pollen and fungal spores at variable elevations using an aircraft: how high can they fly?

Airborne pollen and fungal spores are monitored mainly in highly populated, urban environments, for allergy prevention purposes. However, their sources can frequently be located outside cities' fringes with more vegetation. So as to shed light to this paradox, we investigated the diversity and abundance of airborne pollen and fungal spores at various environmental regimes. We monitored pollen and spores using an aircraft and a car, at elevations from sea level to 2,000 m above ground, in the region of Thesssaloniki, Greece. We found a total of 24 pollen types and more than 15 spore types. Pollen and spores were detected throughout the elevational transect. Lower elevations exhibited higher pollen concentrations in only half of plant taxa and higher fungal spore concentrations in only Ustilago. Pinaceae and Quercus pollen were the most abundant recorded by airplane (>54% of the total). Poaceae pollen were the most abundant via car measurements (>77% of the total). Cladosporium and Alternaria spores were the most abundant in all cases (aircraft: >69% and >17%, car: >45% and >27%, respectively). We conclude that pollen and fungal spores can be diverse and abundant even outside the main source area, evidently because of long-distance transport incidents

Earlier flowering of Betula pendula Roth in Augsburg, Germany, due to higher temperature, NO2 and urbanity, and relationship with Betula spp. pollen season

Flowering and pollen seasons are sensitive to environmental variability and are considered climate change indicators. However, it has not been concluded to what extent flowering phenology is indeed reflected in airborne pollen season locally. The aim of this study was to investigate, for the commonly represented in temperate climates and with highly allergenic pollen Betula pendula Roth, the responsiveness of flowering to different environmental regimes and also to check for commensurate changes in the respective pollen seasons. The region of Augsburg, Bavaria, Germany, was initially screened for birch trees, which were geolocated at a radius of 25 km. Random trees across the city were then investigated during three full flowering years, 2015–2017. Flowering observations were made 3–7 times a week, from flower differentiation to flower desiccation, in a total of 43 plant individuals. Data were regressed against meteorological parameters and air pollutant levels in an attempt to identify the driving factors of flowering onset and offset. Flowering dates were compared with dates of the related airborne pollen seasons per taxon; airborne pollen monitoring took place daily using a Hirst-type volumetric sampler. The salient finding was that flowering occurred earlier during warmer years; it also started earlier at locations with higher urbanity, and peaked and ended earlier at sites with higher NO(2) concentrations. Airborne pollen season of Betula spp. frequently did not coincide locally with the flowering period of Betula pendula: while flowering and pollen season were synchronized particularly in their onset, local flowering phenology alone could explain only 57.3% of the pollen season variability. This raises questions about the relationship between flowering times and airborne pollen seasons and on the rather underestimated role of the long-distance transport of pollen

Pollen production of downy birch (Betula pubescens Ehrh.) along an altitudinal gradient in the European Alps

High-altitude environments are highly susceptible to the effects of climate change. Thus, it is crucial to examine and understand the behaviour of specific plant traits along altitudinal gradients, which offer a real-life laboratory for analysing future impacts of climate change. The available information on how pollen production varies at different altitudes in mountainous areas is limited. In this study, we investigated pollen production of 17 birch (Betula pubescens Ehrh.) individuals along an altitudinal gradient in the European Alps. We sampled catkins at nine locations in the years 2020–2021 and monitored air temperatures. We investigated how birch pollen, flowers and inflorescences are produced in relation to thermal factors at various elevations. We found that mean pollen production of Betula pubescens Ehrh. varied between 0.4 and 8.3 million pollen grains per catkin. We did not observe any significant relationships between the studied reproductive metrics and altitude. However, minimum temperature of the previous summer was found to be significantly correlated to pollen (rs = 0.504, p = 0.039), flower (rs = 0.613, p = 0.009) and catkin (rs = 0.642, p = 0.005) production per volume unit of crown. Therefore, we suggest that temperature variability even at such small scales is very important for studying the response related to pollen production