Trends in Food and Environment Allergen Sensitivity over the Last 5 Years in the General Population Comparing with Medical Students

Background & Aims: Allergic diseases affect 40% of the world's population, a proportion that is increasing due to various factors associated with environmental and meteorological changes related to global warming. However, little has been written about which specific allergens are causing this increase in allergic disease. Changes in lifestyle and food consumption patterns in the population may also be influencing this increase. Methods: We present a longitudinal, real-life observational study conducted over the last five years in our allergic population treated at the Allergy Department of the Rio Hortega University Hospital (HURH), (21,564 sensitized patients, aged between 0 and 99 years) and the student of 5th Medicine course of our University (22-23 years old), (diagnosed by prick test, specific immunoglobulin E positivity, and provocation if necessary) from 2021 to 2025. We aim to find out which allergens are increasing or decreasing, and compare them with the trends in positivity obtained in a group of 683 medical students who underwent the same tests in the practical class included in the teaching report for the Immunopathology and Allergy course. Results: In 2021, after the lockdown due to the pandemic, only 6 allergens were more detected significantly as more risk to sensitize the student group respect to general patients attended in surgery (grasses, olive, cupressus and plane tree pollen and profiline). Food sensitization was not detected. In 2022, nine more relevant allergens were more detected in students than in the general population. Dog and cat appear as important allergens, and 5 food plant allergens were included. These foods are also detected in subsequent years. Anisakis remain highly significant allergen in this young people, despite all students being aware of the freezing measures. Conclusions: There appears to be a clear relationship between climate, lifestyle, economy, and consumption and allergic conditions, which may be based on a possible shift away from the Mediterranean diet due to an increase in pathologies associated with plant panallergens (LTPS and profilins) related to pollen.