One in five Norwegians use allergy medications

19 percent of Norway’s population received allergy medication by prescription in 2019, new figures from the Prescription Register show.

The number of people being treated with allergy medicines in Norway has seen a significant increase in the last ten years. In 2010, about 15 percent of the population received allergy medication on prescription.

More women than men use allergy medications. The exception is in the youngest age group.

Significantly more allergy medicines are used in southern Norway than in the northernmost counties. In Oslo and Viken, over 20 percent of the population uses allergy medications by prescription, while the corresponding figures for Troms and Finnmark and Nordland are 15 percent and just under 17 percent respectively.

– “It may be related to longer pollen seasons in the south than in the north, and that vegetation in the north is different, but we have no clear explanations for the differences,” says senior adviser Christian Berg at the Institute of Public Health.

Allergy products are also sold non-prescription. In 2019, non-prescription allergy tablet sales accounted for 9 percent of total sales measured in doses.

© NTB Scanpix / #Norway Today