Objective: Urban parks planning must address allergy risks from pollen and chemicals, despite parks’ importance for nature connection. This pioneering study assessed the allergenicity of plant collections in four urban parks located in three climatic zones of Iran.

Materials and Methods: A total of 1160 respondents participated to complete questionnaires during spring pollination. We assessed the effects of age, occupation, gender, and climate on allergy symptoms. Regarding general allergy symptom severity, 21.66% reported mild, 18.46% moderate, and 6.13% severe symptoms. Among those with symptoms, 31.58% reported no change in park use behavior.

Results: Results indicated women were significantly more likely than men to experience pollen allergy symptoms, physical weakness due to allergens, and specifically, nasal symptoms (runny nose, congestion), sneezing, and watery eyes. Students and full-time employees were more likely to experience symptoms than retirees or unemployed individuals. Comparing parks, allergy incidence was significantly lower in Mellat Park. Yazd University Park (arid climate) had a significantly higher incidence of reported intellectual and mental problems. Regarding park management suggestions, regular dust cleaning was most frequent. For future planning, planting more female trees was the top suggestion. For prevention, most respondents suggested predicting and announcing harmful pollen presence in advance.

Conclusion: The findings suggest implementing enhanced preventive measures for women, full-time employees, and residents of hot, arid regions regarding allergic symptoms especially associated with urban green spaces.