使用國際通用問卷進行環境過敏症的國內調查，從流行病學的角度對環境過敏症的最新發現及未來展望
Recent findings and future perspectives on environmental hypersensitivity from an epidemiological perspective, focusing on a domestic survey study of environmental hypersensitivity using the international common questionnaire.
環境過敏症（environmental hypersensitivity）為具有多種全身症狀的健康障礙，包括自主及內分泌症狀、免疫及過敏症狀、慢性疼痛及疲勞、記憶及情緒障礙以及對日常生活外在環境刺激敏感（光、聲音、嗅覺、氣壓、化學性及電磁波）。這些都是病態建築症候群（sick house syndrome)、化學物質過敏症（chemical sensitivity）
及電磁波過敏症（electromagnetic hypersensitivity）典型的症狀。
環境過敏症的病理機制可由三階段的假說來解釋，分別為遺傳（genetic）、起始（initiation）以及觸發（triggering）階段。第一階段，與壓力反應有關的基因決定因子；在第二階段，曝露於環境因素成為對環境壓力不耐受的易感者；在第三階段，日常的環境壓力不會干擾一般人，會發展成具有身體問題的易感者。
近年來，環境過敏症的病患數迅速增加，成為世界性的問題，儘管其發病機制有待闡明，但環境過敏症已被指出與過敏性疾病的密切關係。
過去三十年間，Hojo博士進行了多方面的流行病學調查，包括用來評估環境過敏症的國際通用問卷日文譯本，確認其可靠度及有效性，並設置日本獨有的篩選閾值。在這篇研究中，我們描述了環境過敏症的最新發現以及介紹作者使用國際通用問卷在日本進行的一些流行病學研究。
Environmental hypersensitivity (environmental intolerance) is a health disorder characterized by a variety of systemic symptoms, including autonomic and endocrine symptoms, immune and allergic symptoms, chronic pain and fatigue, memory and emotional disorders, and hypersensitivity to external environmental stimuli in daily life (light sensitivity, sound sensitivity, smell sensitivity, air pressure sensitivity, chemical sensitivity, and electromagnetic sensitivity). Its typical examples are sick house syndrome, chemical sensitivity, and electromagnetic hypersensitivity. The pathological mechanism of environmental hypersensitivity can be explained by the three-stage hypothesis; genetic, initiation, and triggering stages. The first stage is genetically determined factors related to the stress response. In the second stage, the person is exposed to environmental factors, becoming a susceptible person to be intolerant to environmental stress. In the third stage, environmental stress at a daily level which would not bother normal persons develops a sensitive person with generalized physical problems. In recent years, the rapid increase in the number of patients with environmental hypersensitivity has become a worldwide problem, and a close relationship with allergic diseases has been pointed out, although its pathogenesis remains to be elucidated. Over the past 30 years, Hojo has conducted multifaceted epidemiological investigations, including the preparation of a Japanese translation of the international common questionnaire to evaluate environmental hypersensitivity, confirmation of its reliability and validity, and the setting of screening thresholds unique to Japan. In this paper, we describe the latest findings on environmental hypersensitivity and introduce some of the epidemiological studies conducted by the authors in Japan using the international common questionnaire.
參考資料：Sachiko Hojo, Atsushi Mizukoshi, and Yoshiyuki Kuroiwa: Recent findings and future perspectives on environmental hypersensitivity from an epidemiological perspective, focusing on a domestic survey study of environmental hypersensitivity using the international common questionnaire. The Autonomic Nervous System (accepted 2021/10/22, in press)