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. 2015 Jul;16(7):640-50.
doi: 10.1631/jzus.B1400284.

Diagnosis and treatment of allergic diseases in Zhejiang Province: a cross-sectional survey

Hui-ying Wang  1 , Yi-hong Shen, Xu-yan Yang, Lan-fang Tang, Jian-ying Zhou; Zhejiang Provincial Academy of Allergy
Affiliations

Diagnosis and treatment of allergic diseases in Zhejiang Province: a cross-sectional survey

Hui-ying Wang et al. J Zhejiang Univ Sci B. 2015 Jul.

Abstract

Background: The specialty of allergy developed quickly in western countries because of the rapid increase of allergic diseases, whereas it developed relatively slowly in China. The prevalence of allergen sensitization and allergic diseases in Zhejiang Province of China is high and improving the medical services for these diseases is critically needed.

Objective: To investigate the working status of the diagnosis and treatment of allergic diseases, including doctor resources, diagnostic methods, and allergen-specific immunotherapy in patients of Zhejiang Province, and to provide instructions for the strategic development of subspecialties of allergic diseases.

Methods: First we defined the doctors who treat allergic diseases, and designed a comprehensive questionnaire to collect personal and hospital information for these doctors. The questionnaires were distributed to hospitals with different ranks and from different areas in the province. The general condition of doctor's resources, carryout of diagnostic methods, and allergen-specific immunotherapy were described and variations in the different specialties, hospitals, and areas were further analyzed.

Results: Doctors in their thirties with bachelor's degrees were the mainstream for diagnosing and treating allergic diseases. The main specialties of the doctor resources were the specialties of Ear, Nose and Throat (ENT), Respirology, Pediatrics, and Dermatology. The Pediatrics specialty had a more reasonable infrastructure of doctor resources with more young doctors working in this subspecialty. The development of allergy subspecialty varied within hospitals at different levels or from different areas. The carryout of the skin prick test (SPT), serum specific IgE (ssIgE), and subcutaneous immunotherapy (SCIT) was best performed in provincial hospitals, while sublingual immunotherapy (SLIT) was prescribed most commonly in municipal hospitals. The performance of SPT and ssIgE in Hangzhou, Jiaxing, and Wenzhou areas was much better than that in other places. The performance of SCIT and SLIT was best in Wenzhou.

Conclusions: Our survey revealed a very initial and unbalanced development for the allergy subspecialty in Zhejiang Province. Doctor resources for allergic diseases were mainly from the specialties of ENT, Respirology, and Pediatrics, and the performance of diagnosis and treatment was mainly focused on provincial and municipal hospitals. Continuous education of allergies could be extended to primary healthcare centers and more efforts should be directed to those areas with poor medical resources.

Keywords: Allergen-specific immunotherapy; Allergy; Diagnosis; Treatment.

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Conflict of interest statement

Compliance with ethics guidelines: Hui-ying WANG, Yi-hong SHEN, Xu-yan YANG, Lan-fang TANG, and Jian-ying ZHOU declare that they have no conflict of interest.

This article does not contain any studies with human or animal subjects performed by any of the authors.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
General characteristics and distribution of doctors working in the diagnosis and treatment of allergic diseases (a) The age distribution of doctors, which reveals that the majority of them were at thirties and forties, and younger (less than 30 years) and older (more than 50 years) doctors only took a small portion; (b) The degree level distribution of doctors; (c) The distribution of doctors in hospitals at different levels; (d) The specialty distribution of doctors; (e) The distribution of doctors and hospitals from nine geographic areas
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Characteristics of doctors working in allergic diseases in the specialties of Respirology, ENT, and Pediatrics The gender distribution (a), age distribution (b), work-time (c), and the position (d) of doctors from the specialties of Respirology, ENT, and Pediatrics
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
Carryout of allergen measurements and allergen specific immunotherapy The percentage of hospitals that performed ssIgE assay was much higher than that of hospitals that performed SPT. However, only 22% of hospitals had carried out ImmunoCAP. The percentage of hospitals that prescribed SLIT was higher than that of hospitals that prescribed SCIT
Fig. 4
Fig. 4
Carryout of diagnostic methods in hospitals at different levels (a) SPT; (b) ssIgE; (c) ImmunoCAP; (d) SPT+ssIgE
Fig. 5
Fig. 5
Carryout of diagnostic methods in hospitals from different areas (a) SPT; (b) ssIgE; (c) ImmunoCAP
Fig. 6
Fig. 6
Carryout of treatments in hospitals at different levels (a) SLIT; (b) SCIT; (c) SLIT+SCIT
Fig. 7
Fig. 7
Carryout of treatments in hospitals from different areas (a) SLIT; (b) SCIT
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