The AIS LIFE project: the Italian enrollment phase results

The prevalence of allergic diseases and asthma are increasing worldwide, particularly in children and young adults. Given the remarkable clinical impact of pollen allergy, the project “Aerobiological Information Systems and allergic respiratory disease management” AIS-LIFE has been developed in order to improve pollen-related allergic respiratory disease management in the general population, Through the implementation and the permanent utilization of two different Aerobiological Information Systems in Italy, France and Austria. This paper aims at describing the results of the enrollment phase in Pisa, Italy. As a part of the AIS project, 618 Pisa allergic subjects were contacted by trained fieldworkers and invited to replay to a screening questionnaire in order to ascertain the inclusion criteria: spending most of the week living, studying, working in the study area, presence of seasonal nasal / ocular / bronchial symptoms in the last 12 months or use of preventive treatment, and absence of allergen-specific immunotherapy in the last 6 years. Participants were randomly assigned to three groups: A. using the Integrated Information System (IIS), B. using the Personalized Pollen Information system (PPI) and C. not using any system. Chi-square test and analysis of variance were performed to assess statistical differences of general characteristics and symptoms by screening results. Out of 618 subjects, 39.6% had a positive screening and participated in the study, 3.6% had a positive screening but refused, 27.2% had a negative screening and 29.6% refused for lack of interest/health problems or were unreachable/died. Participants (mean age 48 years) were younger than eligible refusals (59 years) (p<.001); with a higher prevalence rate of seasonal nasal symptoms (87%) and a lower prevalence rate of use of preventive medicines for bronchial symptoms (33%) than refusals (68% and 55%, respectively; p<.05). Considering participants, group B subjects were significantly younger (40 years) than group A (48 years) and C (55 years) subjects (p<.001); prevalence rate of seasonal bronchial symptoms was significantly lower in group C subjects (25.0%) than in group A (44.3%) and B (52.6%) subjects; prevalence rate of use of preventive medicines for bronchial symptoms was borderline significantly lower in group C (23.9%) than in group A (34.2%) and group B (41%). These preliminary results underline a few differences between eligible subjects participating and not participating in the study and among the study groups to be taken into account in the future analyses. Only the completion of the study will allow to fully evaluate the effectiveness of the two aerobiological information systems in improving allergic diseases management thus paving the way for new, permanent information systems and for a continuous innovation of the proposed model.