If you or your children suffer from asthma or hay fever, you know how difficult it can be to keep abreast of the various triggers which can prompt a reaction.
Over time, however, you will become more in tune with yours or your child's reaction to certain stimuli - a lived experience which researchers are hoping to benefit from following the launch of a new app.
Through the app BritainBreathing which is free to download on Android, members of the public can enter their symptoms and triggers in order for experts to compare and contrast symptoms with information pertaining to pollution, pollen count and weather.
Like the app we reported on earlier today, a suffer's contribution to the research can do much to help better understand the condition, its symptoms and their triggers.
Created by the Royal Society of Biology, the British Society of Immunology and the University of Manchester, the app will serve to aid research into an area which desperately needs more human data.
Commenting on the significance of the endeavour, Dr. Sheena Cruickshank highlights the various factors which play a role in these conditions.
"It could be pollution, super pollens, increased cleanliness or a combination of factors," she explained. "What has been missing to answer this question is wide-scale human data about what is really happening."
"Because detailed information on pollen and pollution is available, we want map Britain Breathing data onto that and perhaps come closer to understanding what really drives allergies, on both and individual and national level."
According to Jon Kudlick, director of communications at the Royal Society of Biology, this approach will do much to accelerate understanding in the area.
"Does air pollution add to the misery of those suffering with hay fever?" he asked. "Are people having more asthmatic symptoms in Manchester than in London, and if so why?"
Would you be willing to participate in the research?
