Knowledge and expectations of patients receiving aeroallergen immunotherapy

Abstract

Patients receiving aeroallergen immunotherapy frequently have poor knowledge and unfounded expectations of various important aspects of their treatment. To evaluate patients' knowledge about the content, benefit, and risk related to the aeroallergen immunotherapy that they were receiving. A self-administered questionnaire was distributed to all patients older than 16 years who had undergone aeroallergen immunotherapy for allergic rhinitis at 3 university-affiliated allergy clinics. A total of 132 patients (77 males and 57 females; mean +/- SD age, 30 +/- 13 years) participated in the study. The mean +/- SD duration of treatment was 30 +/- 60 months. Complete recovery of their allergies was expected by 39% of the patients. One fifth of the study group did not know when improvement should be expected, and 18% anticipated improvement to occur within days or weeks from the initiation of treatment. Only 32% were aware that immunotherapy might have some potential risk or adverse effects, and 24.2% failed to identify at least one of the allergens they were receiving. Patients who were interviewed during their first 6 months of aeroallergen immunotherapy had more knowledge about it than those who had been undergoing long-term treatment. There is a grave lack of knowledge and numerous misconceptions among substantial numbers of patients receiving aeroallergen immunotherapy. More educational effort is needed to increase patients' knowledge about immunotherapy before and during aeroallergen immunotherapy to improve their compliance and the success and safety of this therapeutic modality.