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Responses to online allergy survey fluctuated monthly, seasonally

Time-dependent fluctuations were apparent in parents’ responses in an online questionnaire regarding children’s allergic symptoms, including asthma, rhinitis and eczema, according to recent study results.

Researchers in Japan invited 1,800 parents of at least one child aged 6 to 12 years to participate in an online International Study of Asthma and Allergies in Childhood (ISAAC) questionnaire from February 2011 to January 2012. Surveys of asthma symptoms were conducted every month and surveys of rhinitis and eczema were conducted every season throughout the year.

The analysis included 24,850 children (mean age, 8.9 years; 49.9% female) of 18,829 parents (response rate, 87.2%).

“There was a significant fluctuation in the positive responses to questions about wheezing in the past 12 months (P<.001) but not in the positive responses to questions about exercise-induced wheezing in the past 12 months (P=.75 and P=.15, respectively),” the researchers wrote.

Positive responses regarding rhinitis (P=.002) and allergic rhinoconjunctivitis (P<.001) and ever having pollinosis (P<.001) displayed significant variations based on season. By contrast, no significant variations in positive responses regarding eczema were observed.

“This study suggests that the timing of data collection in a Web-based study affects responses to questions about wheezing and rhinitis in schoolchildren,” the researchers concluded. “Taking this in account will allow the … ISAAC questionnaire to become a more useful research tool for epidemiologic studies. Furthermore, physicians and asthma caregivers should consider a recall bias when they assess patients’ allergic symptoms during a particular period.”

Disclosure: The researchers report no relevant financial disclosures.