Short term physician visits and medication prescriptions for allergic disease associated with seasonal tree, grass, and weed pollen exposure across the United States

Table 2 Meta-analyzed relative risk estimates of allergy medication fills and allergic rhinitis physician visits (first visit in calendar year) on days with different categories for tree, grass and weed pollen. Same-day pollen concentrations are used to define the pollen categories. Relative risk estimates derived from models with weekly ILI index, air pollution measures (daily PM2.5 and Ozone) and meteorological factors (daily maximum temperature, total precipitation, and average wind speed) as covariates

Allergy medication fills
	Tree pollen			Grass pollen			Weed pollen
Pollen level	RR	95% CI		RR	95% CI		RR	95% CI
Low	1			1			1
Moderate	1.04	*1.03*	*1.05*	1.00	0.99	1.01	1.01	0.99	1.02
Moderately high	1.06	*1.05*	*1.08*	1.00	0.98	1.02	1.05	*1.03*	*1.07*
High	1.11	*1.09*	*1.14*	1.03	0.99	1.07	1.08	*1.06*	*1.10*
Very high	1.22	*1.16*	*1.27*	1.07	*1.00*	*1.14*	1.15	*1.12*	*1.18*
Physician visit for allergic rhinitis
	Tree pollen			Grass pollen			Weed pollen
Pollen level	RR	95% CI		RR	95% CI		RR	95% CI
Low	1			1			1
Moderate	1.07	*1.01*	*1.13*	1.17	*1.08*	*1.26*	1.12	*1.01*	*1.23*
Moderately high	1.08	*1.02*	*1.15*	1.27	*1.13*	*1.41*	1.18	*1.06*	*1.29*
High	1.20	*1.10*	*1.31*	1.29	*1.15*	*1.42*	1.31	*1.15*	*1.47*
Very high	1.40	*1.14*	*1.66*	1.34	*1.16*	*1.53*	1.30	*1.12*	*1.47*

ISSN: 1476-069X