[Frequency of inhalation allergies in children of rural areas as compared to urban areas].

The morbidity of inhalation allergies which was proved to exist on the basis of a screening test involving schoolchildren in a big city (Vienna) in 1979 was compared to that in school children in a rural area (Wiener Neustadt region). The study involved 651 children aged 8, 12 and 15-16 who were examined under the same conditions as the Vienna school children had been examined previously. Case histories were prepared with the help of questionnaires and each child was subjected to a skin test against grass species, pollen and the house-dust mite. If one of the two criteria was positive, blood samples were taken for specific serum-IgE determination by means of RAST and whole-blood IgE-level by means of PRIST. In the group of Wiener Neustadt schoolchildren aged 8, 8% suffered from manifest allergies (7% in Vienna) and 5% from latent allergies (7% in Vienna). In the group of 12 year old children, 11% suffered from manifest allergies (11% in Vienna) and 8.5% from latent allergies (8% in Vienna). A definite conclusion concerning the group of children aged 15-16 cannot be drawn, since the samples were not comparable. Since the results obtained in Wiener Neustadt and Vienna were largely identical, this proves 1. the reliability of the results concerning the percentages of allergic children; 2. that the number of allergies increases with the age of the children; 3. that there is no statistical difference in the allergy distribution between children coming from rural areas or from big cities.