Environmental exposure to allergens in the home and analysis instruments: a scoping review
Main Article Content
Keywords
allergens, environmental exposure, home environment, surveys and questionnaires, validation study
Abstract
The objective was to identify possible validated instruments used to assess environmental exposure to allergens in the home. A scoping review was conducted including full articles published in Portuguese, English, and Spanish, up to July 2025, without a time limit, in the databases MEDLINE/PubMed, EMBASE, Scopus, CINAHL, and Web of Science databases. Three studies, published between 1999 and 2022, comprised the review. Three validated instruments were identified: one restricted to criterion validation and two with more comprehensive validation (construct, content, criterion, and reliability assessment). The main respiratory allergens assessed by the instruments were house dust mites, animal epithelia (particularly cats and dogs), cockroaches, and fungi. The review identified a small number of instruments in the literature, including a single instrument capable of assessing exposure to allergens in the home without the need for targeted observation, using direct interviews with patients as the assessment method. The results presented indicate a shortage of validated, widely used instruments worldwide to investigate the home environment of patients with respiratory allergies, thereby compromising the development of necessary guidelines to mitigate allergen exposure, a fundamental principle of all allergy treatment.
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