Abstract:Objective To investigate the epidemiological characteristics of allergic rhinitis in women with childbearing history and the incidence of allergic diseases in their offspring. Methods 592 female cases with childbearing history (2540 years old) suffering from allergic rhinitis (AR) were enrolled and evaluated from September 2007 to December 2008. According to the results of interview, physical examination, laboratory test and questionnaire survey, these patients were divided into AR accompanying with bronchial asthma group (group A) and AR group (group B).Types and severity degrees of AR, age of childbirth, and their relationship with the incidence of allergic diseases in offspring were analysed. The odds ratio (OR) was regarded as an indicator of risk evaluation. Results ① Of all the 592 cases, 213 suffered from AR accompanying with bronchial asthma (35.98%) and 379 suffered from AR only (64.02%). ② As for the incidence of allergic diseases of offspring, the total incidence was 64.87% (384/592) while those of group A and group B were 82.63% (176/213) and 54.88% (208/379) respectively with a statistically significant difference (OR=3.91, 95%, CI 2.33~5.74). ③ In the offspring of 284 patients with persistent moderrate to severe AR (47.97%), the incidence of allergic diseases was 71.48%. For the offspring of patients with persistent moderate to severe AR, the incidences of allergic diseases in group A and B were 85.85%, 62.92% with statistically significant difference (P<0.05). ④ As for the age of childbirth, the offspring of patients aged from 25 to 30 years old in group A had the highest incidence of allergic diseases (85.42%).The differences of incidences at any age stage between group A and group B were statistically significant (P<0.05). Conclusion The incidence of allergic diseases in the offspring of women with AR accompanying with asthma is higher than that of women with AR only. For the women with childbirth age of 25~30 years old suffering from persistent moderate to severe AR accompanying with asthma, their offspring are more liable to allergic diseases.