ASCIA‐P56: BURDEN OF ALLERGIC RHINITS IN AUSTRALIA

Abstract

Allergic rhinitis (AR) affects approximately 500 million individuals around the world and is increasing in prevalence. Often trivialised as a ‘nuisance disease’, its burden has been systematically under-estimated. The aim of this survey was to understand the burden of AR in Australia, both from an individual and societal perspective. 1151 adults with a self-reported diagnosis of AR were recruited across Australia via a patient panel to complete an online survey in August 2015. The survey included questions on type of AR and its severity, medication utilisation, GP services, absenteeism and presenteeism. Descriptive statistics were used to summarise results. Most Australian AR patients have seasonal AR, either alone (n = 376; 32.7%) or in combination with perennial AR (n = 616; 53.5%), and rate their disease as either moderate (n = 455, 39.5%) or severe (n = 495, 43.0%), predominantly. Patients visited their GP due to AR symptoms on average 2.9 times/year, with 1.1 visits due to dissatisfaction with current treatment. The majority had also seen a specialist for their AR (n = 771, 67.0%). Of respondents who used medication (n = 1016, 83.3%), 79.7% (n = 810) co-medicated, usually with intranasal corticosteroids and oral anti-histamines ± eye drops. This co-medication behaviour was driven by the need for better and faster nasal and ocular symptom relief (67.0% and 43.8% of patients, respectively), but only 16.9% of patients (n = 137) were completely satisfied with their multi-therapy regimen. Patients continued to experience high nasal (rTNSS 9.4/12) and ocular (rTOSS: 6.4/9) symptom burden, reported an AR-specific absenteeism rate of 3.9 days/year, with productivity negatively impacted on 31.3 days/year. Indeed 62.0% of patients reported a ≥50% reduction in productivity when symptomatic. Clearly, more effective AR treatments are needed to both reduce the symptomatic burden of AR for patients and costs to the Australian economy.