ORIGINAL PAPER The impact of pollen load on quality of life: a questionnaire- based study in Lithuania Ingrida S ˇ aulien _ e . Laura S ˇ ukien _ e . Denis Kainov . Ju ¯rat _ e Greic ˇiuvien _ e Received: 17 March 2015 / Accepted: 12 May 2015 Ó Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2015 Abstract Populations worldwide have been increas- ingly affected by allergic rhinitis associated with pollen allergens. Alterations in the geographical distribution of pollinating flora resulting from climatic changes and increased production of pollens caused by higher atmospheric CO 2 , have changed the environ- ment in which humans reside. This study, carried out in Lithuania, aimed to demonstrate how people with pollen allergy are affected by symptoms associated with changing pollen loads and to evaluate the resultant changes in human quality of life. This study assessed pollen loads in Lithuania during 2013–2014. Skin prick tests were carried out on 665 individuals aiming to evaluate sensitivity to pollen allergens. Self- reports on symptoms and their impact on quality of life were collected from each study subject. There were 249 to 429 differences in inter-annual peaks of Betula pollen concentrations, while differences of plant pollen concentrations of the other genus/families varied from 1.5 to 92 % on peak days. Positive reactions to pollen allergens were reported in 54 % of the study subjects; 90 % of these subjects had been continuously suffering from moderate-to-severe symptoms of allergic rhinitis. The most frequently reported symptoms were sneezing (99 %), runny nose (98 %) and stuffy nose (97 %). The dominant group of subjects reported symptoms during the entire period of vegetation (7 months). This study demonstrated that people with pollen allergies have attributed symptom- associated worsening of their quality of life to the typical periods of unavoidable exposure and have made only minimal changes in their lifestyle during the season of pollen load. Keywords Pollen season Á Aerobiology Á Symptoms Á Allergy Á Rhinitis Á Sensitisation 1 Introduction The airborne pollen of anemophilous plants is one of the main causes of seasonal rhinitis and rhinitis- associated symptoms. Pollen concentration in the air is largely predetermined by emission from local plants (Estrella et al. 2006;S ˇ ikoparija et al. 2009). However, pollen concentrations in the air risky for the health of sensitive individuals were found under non-typical local circumstances (Sofiev et al. 2006; Siljamo et al. 2013). Local geographical conditions may result in different pollen concentrations of the same plant species in the atmospheres of different countries (Rodrı ´guez et al. 2014); therefore, pollen load assess- ment in a specific territory is required from time to I. S ˇ aulien _ e(&) Á L. S ˇ ukien _ e Á D. Kainov Á J. Greic ˇiuvien _ e Department of Environmental Research and Physics, Faculty of Technology and Natural Sciences, S ˇ iauliai University, Vilniaus Street 141, 78353 S ˇ iauliai, Lithuania e-mail: ingrida.sauliene@su.lt 123 Aerobiologia DOI 10.1007/s10453-015-9387-1