Prevalence and time trends of symptoms of allergic rhinitis and rhinoconjunctivitis in Spanish children: Global Asthma Network (GAN) study.

Abstract

The time trends of the prevalence of rhinitis, rhinoconjunctivitis and nasal allergy previously described in the ISAAC (International Study of Asthma and Allergies in Childhood) in 2002 are unknown; or if the geographical or age differences in Spain persist. To describe the prevalence of rhinitis, rhinoconjunctivitis and nasal allergy in different Spanish geographical areas and compare them with those of the ISAAC. Cross-sectional study of the prevalence of rhinitis, rhinoconjunctivitis and nasal allergy, carried out in 2016-2019 on 19943 adolescents aged 13-14 years and 17215 schoolchildren aged 6-7 years from six Spanish areas (Cartagena, Bilbao, Cantabria, La Coruña, Pamplona, and Salamanca), through a questionnaire based on the Global Asthma Network (GAN) protocol. The prevalences of recent rhinitis and rhinoconjunctivitis (last 12 months), and nasal allergy/hay fever were 35.1%, 17.6%, and 14.6% in the adolescents and 20%, 8.5%, and 8.9% in the schoolchildren, respectively, with rhinoconjunctivitis in adolescents varying from 20.9% in Bilbao to 13.4% in Cartagena; and in schoolchildren, from 9.8% in La Coruña to 6.4% in Pamplona. These prevalences of rhinoconjunctivitis and nasal allergy in adolescents were higher than those described in the ISAAC (16.3% and 13%) and similar in schoolchildren to the ISAAC (9% and 9.4%). There has been a stabilisation of rhinitis, rhinoconjunctivitis and nasal allergy in schoolchildren that slows the previous upward trend of ISAAC; and a slight non-significant increase in rhinoconjunctivitis and nasal allergy in adolescents. The variability found in adolescents would require local research to be better understood.