Health outcome · disease
Allergic rhinitis
Part of: Allergy and allergic sensitisation
Also: hay fever, rhinitis, nasal allergy, perennial rhinitis
Inflammation of the nasal lining driven by an allergic response — sneezing, blockage, runny nose and itching — triggered by an allergen the person is sensitised to. Indoors the relevant allergens are the ones that live in buildings rather than the ones that blow in.
Not reviewed by a clinician. This entry describes a disease or a symptom. We are introducing clinical review for pages of this kind; until that reviewer is in place, this page has been written and checked by the Coridum team but not reviewed by a clinician. It is general information and not medical advice. How this library is built is described in How we build this library.
Why it matters indoors
Allergic rhinitis is the commonest allergic condition and the one most tightly bound to the home, because the allergens that cause its year-round form — dust mites, moulds, pets and cockroaches — are produced inside the building and are present every day rather than for a season.
Two distinct indoor mechanisms appear in the literature. One is allergen exposure, where the amount present in the bedding and the dust determines both the chance of becoming sensitised and the symptoms of someone already sensitised. The other is irritation: formaldehyde, volatile compounds and combustion products inflame the same lining and can worsen symptoms in people whose sensitisation came from elsewhere.
Its clinical importance runs beyond the nose. Rhinitis and asthma share a lining and frequently share a patient, and rhinitis often appears first — which makes it the earliest indoor signal the airway gives.
Indoor factors with evidence
| Factor | Effect | Population | Study design | Source | Checked |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Carbon monoxide (CO) | OR 1.09 (1.02–1.18) per 1 ppm-year of cumulative carbon-monoxide exposure | young children · home | prospective cohort in the western highlands of Guatemala: cumulative personal carbon-monoxide exposure of young children in three groups defined by chimney-stove use in the RESPIRE and CRECER studies, against allergic outcomes, skin prick tests and symptoms, adjusted for socio-economic covariates | F-0971 Lu et al. Biomass Smoke Exposure and Atopy among Young Children in the… (2022) | machine |
| Carbon dioxide (CO₂) | no effect size in the sentence | elementary school children · classroom | cross-sectional study of 1,019 students at 51 elementary schools in Coimbra (Portugal): questionnaire on symptoms and diseases with indoor air quality measurements in classrooms in fall/winter and spring/summer | F-0397 Indoor air quality and health in schools (2014) | machine |
| — | prevalence 19.3 | preschool children · home | questionnaire study of 14,862 preschool children in Taiwan: parents reported wheezing and asthma, allergic rhinitis and eczema together with feeding practices and the home environment, analysed with chi-square tests and multivariable logistic regression | F-1358 Feeding bottles usage and the prevalence of childhood allerg… (2012) | machine |
| Dampness and water damage | OR 10.36 (1.26–119.00) · borderline | occupants of residential complex buildings · dwelling | study of fifty dwellings in Korean residential complex buildings: hidden dampness and water damage were determined with an infrared thermographic camera and, separately, from an ISAAC questionnaire, with indoor mould and bacterial concentrations measured and allergic diseases of the occupants related to both by logistic regression | F-1360 Lee Association of exposure to indoor molds and dampness with al… (2024) | machine |
| Airborne fungi | culturable fungi from several indoor environments, counted as presence rather than as a concentration | — · home | study of fungi isolated from the indoor environments of children with allergic rhinitis and asthma against children without them, with sampling of several indoor environments including indoor plant soil | F-1510 Allergic rhinitis and asthma in association with fungal poll… (2023) | machine |
Each row is one Finding — a sentence as printed in one study, recorded with its page in the Coridum Knowledge Base. Follow the Finding number for the exact wording and the citation. Checked says who verified the row: machine means every automatic check passed and the surrounding text was read; person means someone read the sentence in the document. Rows are re-checked by a person over time. The studies are curated in the Coridum Knowledge Base; the reading of them together is a Claim, shown separately.
Identifiers
- MeSH
- D065631
Cite this page
Coridum Research. Allergic rhinitis. Coridum Knowledge G-0150, 16 September 2026. https://coridum.com/k/G-0150/