(RxWiki News) A report by the Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America (AAFA) has identified the “100 most challenging places to live with allergies". Turns out, Knoxville is the allergy capital of America.
The AAFA's findings are based on three factors: pollen scores, allergy medication usage per individual and number of allergists per individual. The AAFA focused on the 100 largest metro areas in America.
The researchers weighed the scores and created a scale that goes up to 100 points based on the weighted scores. For the second year in a row, Knoxville was the worst place to live with allergies.
"Ask your doctor about seasonal allergy treatments."
Knoxville had worse than average pollen scores and allergy medication usage while having an average amount of allergy specialists and came in with a total score of 100. That's not to say Knoxville had the worst scores among all major cities but that it had the highest weighted score across the three categories.
McAllen, Texas had the second highest score, 96.71, with average pollen scores but below average medication usage and number of allergy specialists.
Rounding out the top five were Louisville, KY, Jackson, MS and Wichita, KS. Louisville had average medication usage but below average pollen scores and number of allergy specialists. Jackson had average pollen scores and number of allergy specialists but below average medication usage. Wichita had an average number of allergy specialists but below average pollen scores and medication usage.
Austin, Texas was ranked 75th last year but jumped up to 26th this year. Austin had better than average numbers in regards to allergy specialists and average medication usage but worse than average pollen counts.
New York City improved in 2012, going from 23 last year to 39 this year. New York City had better than average pollen counts and an average number of allergy specialists but the below average medication usage.
So what is the best place to be for an allergy sufferer? It turns out it is Portland, Oregon. Portland featured average pollen counts and allergy specialists but better than average medication usage.
Another great place to live is Boise City, Idaho which had lower pollen counts, an average number of specialists and above average medication usage.
Other great places to live included Daytona Beach, FL, Denver, CO and Salt Lake City, UT.