Table 2.

Symptoms of rhinoconjunctivitis in the past 12 months - summary of ecological analyses*.

Ecological Issue	Specific Factor	13-14 Year Age Group		6-7 Year Age Group
		Direction of effect	P Value	Direction of effect	P Value
Economic development	GNP	+	0.12	0.06	0.32
Diet	Calories from cereals and rice %	-	0.007	-	0.083
	Protein from cereals and nuts %	-	0.039	-	0.111
	Starch g/d	-	0.266	-	0.069
	Vegetables g/d	-	0.083	-	0.453
	Vegetable Vitamin A μ/d	-	0.085	-	0.479
	Trans fatty acids	+	< 0.0001
Immunisation	Local immunisation rates for DTP#	+	0.002	-	> 0.05
	Local immunisation rates for measles	-	0.015	-	> 0.05
TB exposure	TB notification rates, WHO	-	0.015
Outdoor climate	Altitude	-	> 0.05	-	> 0.05
	Annual variation in mean temperature	-	> 0.05	-	> 0.05
	Lowest monthly mean temperature	+	> 0.05	+	> 0.05
	Annual variation in mean relative humidity	+	> 0.05	-	> 0.05
	Lowest monthly mean relative humidity	-	> 0.05	-	> 0.05
	Mean relative humidity of ≥ 1 month < 50%humidity	+	> 0.05	+	> 0.05
Indoor climate	Mean annual relative humidity	+	> 0.05	+	> 0.05
	Lowest monthly mean relative humidity	+	> 0.05	+	> 0.05
Tobacco smoking	Tobacco consumption, ≥ 15 yrs	-	0.86	+	0.52
	Tobacco smoking, women	-	0.68	+	0.76
	Tobacco smoking, men	-	< 0.001	-	0.06
Pollen	Total grass pollen count	-	0.07
	Days with high pollen counts	-	0.14
Antibiotic usage	Antibiotic sales per capita	-	0.76
Air pollution	PM10	-	0.49	-	0.06
Paracetamol	Per capita paracetamol sales	+	< 0.0005	+	0.002

*standardized for GNP. Where p values are recorded as > 0.05 the non significant p values were not provided in the source publication. #DTP = Diphtheria and tetanus toxoids and pertussis.

Blank space = data not collected. + = positive association. - = inverse association.