Abstract
Chronic rhinosinusitis (CRS) is a frequently occurring chronic respiratory disease. There is evidence that effective treatment of CRS can improve patients’ quality of life, but the data regarding the extent to which CRS impairs patients’ quality of life (QoL) is sparse. This study aimed to evaluate the effect of self-reported CRS on health-related QoL and to determine whether the influence was associated with gender, age and socio-economic status. A four-stage random sampling method was used to select the participants from the general population in Guangzhou, China. All participants were interviewed face-to-face at their homes using a standardized questionnaire. The health-related QoL of each participant was assessed using the SF-36 Health Survey. The scores of the SF-36 after adjusting for gender, age, socioeconomic conditions, smoking and some important comorbid conditions were compared between the CRS group and the non-CRS group using analysis of covariance. A multiple linear regression model with interaction terms was established to determine whether CRS affected QoL to the same degree across the different subpopulations. Among a total of 1,411 participants aged at least 15 years, 118 persons (8.4%) had self-reported CRS. Subjects with CRS had an increased prevalence of allergic rhinitis, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and gout than subjects without CRS. The CRS group had lower scores in all eight domains and the physical and mental component summary than those without CRS (P<0.05), and the greatest differences were in role emotional function (RE), general health (GH) and role physical function (RP). The impairments of the CRS participants in RE and RP were greater among the females than the males. Moreover, physical domains were affected to greater degrees among the elderly and those with high-level education. In conclusion, CRS is a common chronic disorder. Persons with self-reported CRS perceived themselves as having impaired QoL in both the physical and mental domains. These findings shed new light on the health burden of CRS and should be taken into account by clinicians involved in the care of CRS patients.
Highlights
Chronic rhinosinusitis (CRS) is one of the most common chronic conditions with estimated prevalences of 10.9% in Europe [1] and 16% in the USA [2]
A symptoms-based diagnosis of CRS was made if the person presented with at least two of the following four symptoms for more than 12 weeks in the previous one year and at least one of the first two symptoms were present: nasal obstruction/blockage/congestion, nasal discharge, facial pain/pressure, and reduction or loss of smell
We observed repeated medical visits and losses of work days associated with CRS, indicating a remarkable economic burden of CRS
Summary
Chronic rhinosinusitis (CRS) is one of the most common chronic conditions with estimated prevalences of 10.9% in Europe [1] and 16% in the USA [2]. Some studies have demonstrated the enormous economic burden of CRS in terms of direct health costs and losses of productivity [3,4]. CRS brings about significant physical symptoms, such as nasal blockage, rhinorrhea, a reduced sense of smell, facial pain or pressure and headache, which are persistent not fatal and result in considerable negative influences on patients’ daily lives and emotions. CRS-associated loss of quality of life (QoL) is becoming increasingly concerning. From the patient’s perspective, the manner in which CRS affects daily life is far more important than the results of medical examinations such as CT scans [5]. Health-related QoL, which integrates the physical, social and psychological effects of an illness on a patient, has been widely used as an important variable for measuring the severity of symptoms and evaluating the effectiveness of therapies for CRS [6]
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