[Evaluation of Hymenoptera hypersensitivity among forest administration workers].

We used a questionnaire about Hymenoptera hypersensitivity to investigate 2546 forest administration workers in Nagano prefecture. The results were as follows. 1) Almost all of the workers (96.4%), including 528 (21.5%) hypersensitive workers, had been exposed to insect stings and 34 (1.4%) had lost consciousness as a result (i.e. anaphylactic shock). 2) Many of the workers had been stung by yellow jackets or wasps. 3) Their clinical symptoms were more severe when they were stung on the head or neck. 4) The rate of hypersensitive workers increased with the number of times they had been stung (p less than 0.05) and tended to increase with age. 5) The rate of atopy was higher among the hypersensitive workers than the non-hypersensitive workers (p less than 0.01), but those who lost consciousness did not necessarily have a high rate of atopy.