ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Public Health
Sec. Environmental Health and Exposome
Volume 13 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2025.1587767
Association between climate indicators and hay fever incidence in children and adolescents in Freiburg, Germany
Provisionally accepted
Trang Dao-Siebel1,2
Jakob Holstiege3
Kathrin Graw4Christoph Müller5
Andreas Matzarakis6Roxana Halbleib7Evelyn Lamy2*- 1University of Augsburg, Augsburg, Germany
- 2University of Augsburg, Medical faculty, Professorship for Research of Environment-related Mechanisms of Action on Health, Universitätsstraße 2, 86159 Augsburg, Germany, Augsburg, Germany
- 3Central Research Institute of Ambulatory Health Care, Berlin, Baden-Württemberg, Germany
- 4Research Centre Human Biometeorology, Stefan-Meier-Str. 4, D-79104 Freiburg, Germany, Freiburg, Germany
- 5Center for Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, University of Freiburg, Faculty of Medicine, Heiliggeiststraße 1, D - 79106 Freiburg, Germany, Freiburg, Germany
- 6Institute of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Faculty of Environment and Natural Resources, University of Freiburg, Freiburg, Germany
- 7Faculty of Economics and Behavioral Sciences, University of Freiburg, Rempartstr. 16, D-79098 Freiburg, Germany, Freiburg, Germany
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Background: Allergic conditions including hay fever are a sentinel measure of environmental impact on human health in early life. In this study we investigated the association between climate indicators and allergic rhinitis (hay fever) incidence in children and adolescents in Freiburg im Breisgau (Germany), as a representative study site for an urban German environment. Methods: Data on climate indicators and hay fever incidence in children and adolescents in the period 2013 to 2021 were implemented within the free software environment for statistical computing R using generalized additive Gamma family models. Results: Our results from all "seasonal", "non-seasonal", and "single-factor" models could not support the associations between the hay fever incidence and the precipitation as well as the concentrations of PM10, NO2, and O3 in Freiburg. However, they indicated statistically significant associations with temperature, and wind speed at the 5% level. The hay fever incidence was highest, as the temperature was between 4-6°C, and 10-17°C, and the wind speed was between 2.0-2.1m/s. Conclusions: This knowledge could be of relevance for the choice of patient treatment procedure in Freiburg, as the symptoms of a cold or flu can easily be mistaken for an allergy, especially in the cold season.
Keywords: allergic rhinitis, Children and adolescents, Climate Change, generalized additive models, hay fever, Incidence
Received: 04 Mar 2025; Accepted: 15 May 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Dao-Siebel, Holstiege, Graw, Müller, Matzarakis, Halbleib and Lamy. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Evelyn Lamy, University of Augsburg, Medical faculty, Professorship for Research of Environment-related Mechanisms of Action on Health, Universitätsstraße 2, 86159 Augsburg, Germany, Augsburg, Germany
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.