Introduction: A considerable amount of risk factors have been proposed to explain the increase in the frequency of allergic rhinitis; some of them are atopy, cigarette smoking of parents, birthweight, type of feeding at the time of birth and the nutritional state, but the results have been inconsistent. The present study seeks to investigate the role played by these risk factors in the development of allergic rhinitis in a sample of school children.
Material and methods: The data was gathered from 6-12 year old school children. Their parents filled out the questionary which was validated by means of the International Study on Asthma and Allergies in Childhood. Further questioning included background regarding atopy, breastfeeding, birthweight and type of delivery; weight and height were used to calculate the body mass index.
Results: Among 740 children in this study, the frequency of allergic rhinitis was 5.5%; the past history of allergic disease in the father (OR = 3.1; CI 95%, 1.2-8.1, p = 0.018) or in the mother (OR = 3.2; CI 95%, 1.5-6.6, p = 0.002) was importantly associated to the development of allergic rhinitis. We did not find association with the rest of the variables under study.
Conclusion: These results indicate that the prevalence of allergic rhinitis is similar to the one reported in previous studies. The only risk factor associated to allergic rhinitis was the past history of atopic disease in their parents.