Congratulations! You May Have Made Medical History - The Post
POTTSTOWN PA – Men may be more sensitive to common allergens – things that cause allergies, like ragweed, mold, dust mites, and pet dander – than women, according to what was touted Saturday (May 25, 2011) as the “largest-ever study conducted on allergy testing.”
Some of the data on which it was based probably came from patients in Lower Pottsgrove, Limerick and Pottstown.
Quest Diagnostics, which operates a health care testing center on Medical Drive in Lower Pottsgrove and several others across western Montgomery County, announced that a review of nearly 14 million blood tests it conducted for aiding allergy diagnosis suggested men have a higher risk for allergies than women, and “underscores that allergies are a major public health concern.”
Allergies are one of the most common health conditions, affecting one in five Americans, Quest said. Results from the study also showed the growth of two environment-based allergens were linked to climate change, and demonstrated associations between allergies and asthma in children.
Its “Allergies Across America” study is based on testing of patients in every state of the country and the District of Columbia, Quest said, using “de-identified test results from the Quest Diagnostics national database, consisting of more than 1.5 billion patient encounters since January 2000.
If you were among patients who had allergy-related testing done at a local Quest Diagnostics center during the past 11 years, you probably are now part of medical history … even though you won’t be known by name.
Tags: allergies allergy testing Quest Diagnostics