Nearly three quarters of students taking hay fever medication can expect to drop a grade in their exams this year as ingredients in the most popular remedies interfere with their ability to concentrate, research suggests.

Even hay fever sufferers not taking any medication face a 40 per cent risk of achieving lower grades than expected as a result of their condition, the study by the Education for Health charity has found.

The study was funded by the drug firm Shering-Plough, which makes several hay fever remedies.

Samantha Walker, the charity’s director of research and the lead author of the study, said that for too long hay fever had been regarded as a trivial condition.

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“Hay fever peaks between the ages of 14 and 24. This is precisely the time when many people are doing life-changing exams and we need to take it seriously,” she said.

She hoped that the study, based on the exam performance of 1,834 15 to 17-year-olds, would open a discussion on how to “remove the bias operating against those with hay fever” by shifting the examination season to a time that does not coincide with the peak pollen count.

Dr Walker said she also hoped that the study, the first to analyse the impact of the condition on exam performance, would help students to manage their hay fever symptoms better by directing them towards the most appropriate, nonsedating medication.

The study compared the exam performance of participants in mock and final GCSE exams for maths, English or science.

The normal expectation is that most children will achieve the same grade achieved in their mocks, or with increased effort, improve on them when sitting the exam. Any drop in grade is therefore unexpected.

But the study found that those who had hay fever symptoms on an exam day were 40 per cent more likely to drop a grade between their mock and their final exam.

This increased to 70 per cent if they were on a sedating aller-gy medication at the time of their exam.

Teenagers with severe hay fever, and a history of symptoms in previous years, were twice as likely to drop a grade.

Michelle Cox, 18, sneezed her way through her English literature A Level paper on Monday and fears that it may well have cost her a grade.

Ms Cox, from Bexleyheath, South London, had a similar experience when she sat her GCSE maths paper. “I was sneezing and my nose really hurt and I was so tired. I got a grade D, but had been expected to get a C,” she said.

She takes hay fever medication every day, but was not aware that it might be making her drowsy. She is hoping that things will improve for her remaining three A level papers.

Some 28 per cent of students on hay fever medication were on a sedating antihistamine. This is despite the wide availability of effective nonsedating treatments and guidelines recommending their use.

Dr Walker said that the sedating treatments, containing the drug chlorpheniramine and most usually sold under the name Piriton, adversely affected exam performance.

Students who fear that hay fever has interfered with their results can apply to the Joint Council for Qualifications, for their condition to be taken into account.

When pollen counts

Hay fever affects an estimated 15 million people in Britain. Its incidence has tripled over the last 20 years

It affects 30-40 per cent of children. The peak age of onset is in adolescence

Grass pollen counts are at their highest between mid-May and end of June

600,000 GCSE students sit between 5 and 15 exams during a 5-week period between May and June

Hay fever remedies which contain chlorpheniramineK cause drowsiness

Non-drowsy remedies contain loratidine, cetirizine, acrivastine, desloratidine, levocetirizine or fexofenadine

Source: Education for Health

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