Table 5.
Positive rates of allergen by gender in the year 2020~2021 (during the COVID-19 pandemic) compared with the year 2018~2019 (before the COVID-19 pandemic)
| Allergen | 2018~2019, n (%) (n = 2,952) |
2020~2021, n (%) (n = 3,963) |
||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| female | male | χ2 | p value | female | male | χ2 | p value | |
| Inhalant | ||||||||
| D. pteronyssinus | 394 (21.25) | 260 (23.68) | 2.357 | 0.125 | 502 (20.91) | 460 (29.45) | 35.442 | <0.001 |
| D. farinae | 340 (18.34) | 231 (21.04) | 3.221 | 0.073 | 617 (25.7) | 576 (36.88) | 56.198 | <0.001 |
| Cat epithelium | 32 (1.73) | 32 (2.91) | 4.592 | 0.032 | 112 (4.66) | 61 (3.91) | 1.307 | 0.144 |
| Dog epithelium | 23 (1.24) | 6 (0.55) | 3.416 | 0.065 | 41 (1.71) | 25 (1.6) | 0.066 | 0.452 |
| House dust | 127 (6.85) | 96 (8.74) | 3.539 | 0.06 | 238 (9.91) | 184 (11.78) | 3.468 | 0.036 |
| Cockroach | 58 (3.13) | 50 (4.55) | 3.975 | 0.046 | 47 (1.96) | 53 (3.39) | 7.929 | 0.004 |
| Alternaria | 15 (0.81) | 14 (1.28) | 1.539 | 0.215 | 18(0.75) | 26 (1.66) | 7.214 | 0.006 |
| Willow | 17 (0.92) | 6 (0.55) | 1.224 | 0.268 | 21 (0.87) | 19 (1.22) | 1.106 | 0.186 |
| Ragweed | 10 (0.54) | 12 (1.09) | 2.856 | 0.091 | 14 (0.58) | 6 (0.38) | 0.746 | 0.267 |
| Mugwort | 22 (1.19) | 19 (1.73) | 1.489 | 0.222 | 23 (0.96) | 24 (1.54) | 2.703 | 0.069 |
|
| ||||||||
| Food | ||||||||
| Peanut | 13 (0.7) | 16 (1.46) | 4.052 | 0.044 | 4 (0.17) | 12 (0.77) | 8.519 | 0.004 |
| Soybean | 5 (0.27) | 5 (0.46) | 0.704 | 0.401 | 7 (0.29) | 7 (0.45) | 0.659 | 0.291 |
| Milk | 76 (4.1) | 47 (4.28) | 0.057 | 0.812 | 163 (6.79) | 223 (14.28) | 60.352 | <0.001 |
| Crab | 30 (1.62) | 18 (1.64) | 0.002 | 0.965 | 74 (3.08) | 70 (4.48) | 5.292 | 0.014 |
| Shrimp | 15 (0.81) | 11 (1) | 0.294 | 0.588 | 17 (0.71) | 22 (1.41) | 4.764 | 0.023 |
| Eggs | 125 (6.74) | 113 (10.29) | 11.72 | 0.001 | 275 (11.45) | 173 (11.08) | 0.135 | 0.377 |
| Beef | 10 (0.54) | 11 (1) | 2.088 | 1.148 | 3 (0.12) | 3 0.19) | 0.444 | |
| Cod | 3 (0.16) | 1(0.09) | 0.255 | 0.614 | 5 (0.21) | 4 (0.26) | 0.503 | |
| Wheat flourM Lamb |
26 (1.4) 1 (0.05) |
23 (2.09) 1 (0.09) |
2.025 | 0.155 NA* |
49 (2.04) 2 (0.08) |
39 (2.5) 1 (0.06) |
0.906 | 0.199 0.656 |
D. farinae, Dermatophagoides farinae; D. pteronyssinus, Dermatophagoides pteronyssinus.
*
NA, not available: the sample size is too small to meet the applicable conditions of χ2.