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Background The study aimed to determine the prevalence and risk factors of allergic rhinitis and related comorbidities in school-age children in Budapest, capital of Hungary. Data and epidemiological studies on this disease are still limited. Methods A cross sectional study was conducted in 21 representative and randomly selected primary schools in 2019. International Study of Asthma and Allergies in Childhood-based questionnaires (n = 6869) inquiring about prevalence and related risk factors of allergic rhinitis were distributed to all parents. The data were characterised with standard descriptive statistics: frequencies (percentages) and means for categorical and quantitative data, respectively. Results 3836 of the questionnaires (1857 M/1979F) were completed. The prevalence of current allergic rhinitis was 29.3% (1043), physician-diagnosed allergic rhinitis was 9.7% (373), cumulative allergic rhinitis was 36.2% (1289) and current allergic rhinoconjunctivitis was 16.2% (577). The presence of physician diagnosed atopic disease–asthma (p < 0.0001, OR = 4.398, 95% CI 3.356–5.807), food allergy (p < 0.0001, OR = 2.594, 95% CI 1.995–3.378), and eczema (p < 0.0001, OR = 1.899, 95% CI 1.568–2.300)-were significantly related to an increased risk of cumulative allergic rhinitis. Significant factors associated with allergic rhinitis include male gender (p < 0.0001), family history of atopy (p < 0.0001), frequent upper respiratory tract infections (p < 0.0001), tonsillectomy (p = 0.0054), antibiotics given in the first year of life (p < 0.0001), paracetamol given in the first year of life (p = 0.0038), long-lasting common infections caused by viruses and/or bacteria before the appearance of the allergy (p < 0.0001), consumption of drinks containing preservatives or colourants (p = 0.0023), duration of living in Budapest (p = 0.0386), smoking at home (p = 0.0218), smoking at home in the first year of life (p = 0.0048), birds at home (p = 0.0119), birds at home in the first year of life (p = 0.0052), visible mould in the bedroom (p = 0.0139), featherbedding (p = 0.0126), frequent or constant heavy-vehicle traffic (p = 0.0039), living in a weedy area (p < 0.0001) and living in the vicinity of an air-polluting factory or mine (p = 0.0128). Conclusions The prevalence of allergic rhinoconjunctivitis in 6–12-year-old children in Budapest is higher than reported for most of the surrounding European countries. While asthma (OR = 4.398) is the most significant comorbidity, environmental factors such as birds at home in the first year of life (OR = 2.394) and living in a weedy area (OR = 1.640) seem to be the most important factors associated with AR. Strategies for preventive measures should be implemented. Trial registration number: KUT-19/2019. The study was approved by the Ethics Committee at Heim Pál National Pediatric Institute,

Although the prevalence of physician-diagnosed AR has not shown significant changes during the studied interval, the significant increase of the current AR symptoms suggests growing prevalence of AR among children in Budapest. Our results revealed new aspects of bedding customs in atopic families.

Background In the present study the blood expression level of inflammatory response and autoimmunity associated long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) were compared in patients with different chronic respiratory diseases and investigated whether they could be used as biomarkers in these diseases. Methods In the discovery cohort, the gene expression level of 84 lncRNAs were measured in the blood of 24 adult patients including healthy controls and patients with asthma and COPD. In the replication cohort the expression of 6 selected lncRNAs were measured in 163 subjects including healthy controls and adults with allergic rhinitis, asthma, COPD and children with asthma. It was evaluated whether these lncRNAs can be used as diagnostic biomarkers for any studied disease. With systems biology analysis the biological functions of the selected lncRNAs were predicted. Results In the discovery cohort, the mean expression of 27 lncRNAs showed nominally significant differences in at least one comparison. OIP5-AS1, HNRNPU, RP11-325K4.3, JPX, RP11-282O18.3, MZF1-AS1 were selected for measurement in the replication cohort. Three lncRNAs (HNRNPU, RP11-325K4.3, JPX) expressed significantly higher in healthy children than in adult controls. All the mean expression level of the 6 lncRNAs differed significantly between adult allergic rhinitis patients and controls. RP11-325K4.3, HNRNPU and OIP5-AS1 expressed higher in allergic asthma than in non-allergic asthma. COPD and asthma differed in the expression of RP11-325K4.3 from each other. In examining of the lncRNAs as biomarkers the weighted accuracy (WA) values were especially high in the comparison of healthy controls and patients with allergic rhinitis. OIP5-AS1 and JPX achieved 0.98 and 0.9 WA values, respectively, and the combination of the selected lncRNAs also resulted in a high performance (WA = 0.98). Altogether, OIP5-AS1 had the highest discriminative power in case of three out of six comparisons. Conclusion Differences were detected in the expression of circulating lncRNAs in chronic respiratory diseases. Some of these differences might be utilized as biomarkers and also suggest a possible role of these lncRNAs in the pathomechanism of these diseases. The lncRNAs and the associated pathways are potential therapeutic targets in these diseases, but naturally additional studies are needed for the confirmation of these results.