Pollen Exposure and Associated Healthcare Utilization: A Population-based Study Using Health Maintenance Organization Data in the Washington, DC, Area

Rationale: Most studies of the healthcare utilization impact of pollen exposure have focused on emergency department visits or hospital admissions. However, other frequent but lower cost services—phone calls and e-mails to providers and office visits—may also be affected. Objectives: The objective of our study was to estimate the impact of tree and grass pollen exposures on respiratory-related healthcare utilization across a range of medical services, including calls and e-mails to providers, nonurgent face-to-face visits, urgent and emergent care visits, and hospitalizations. Methods: We conducted a retrospective observational study of daily tree and grass pollen counts linked to electronic health records of Kaiser Permanente beneficiaries in the metropolitan Washington, DC, area for 2013–2014. Results: The proportion of Kaiser Permanente beneficiaries with respiratory-related healthcare utilization was significantly greater (for P ⩽ 0.05) given a 1 standard deviation increase in same-day pollen exposure. For tree pollen, a 1 standard deviation increase in same-day pollen exposure was associated with relative increases in utilization ranging from 1.77% (95% confidence interval [CI], 0.07–4.17%) for urgent and emergent care visits to 12.84% (95% CI, 11.02–14.65%) for provider calls/e-mails. For grass pollen exposure, a 1 standard deviation increase in same-day pollen exposure was associated with relative increases in utilization ranging from 1.42% (95% CI, 0.39–2.46) for provider face-to-face visits to 11.09% (95% CI, 9.26–12.92) for provider calls/e-mails. Conclusions: Increased pollen exposure was associated with increases in healthcare utilization across a range of services, with relatively higher increases in provider calls/e-mails and lower increases in emergent or acute care. If climate change increases intensity and geographic scope of pollen exposure as predicted and if this study’s estimates of association of peak pollen exposure on healthcare utilization are generalizable, then the impact of climate change on healthcare utilization may be significant.