Abstract
Background: Apart from nasal symptoms allergic rhinitis was associated with ocular or other symptoms affecting social and somatic activities or sleep. In the literature, only a few prospective studies regarding allergic rhinitis and holistic consideration of quality of life were reported. Methods: The aim of this case control study was to investigate prospectively the effect of allergic rhinitis on quality of life. 103 patients (50 males and 53 females) with mean age 30.8 ± 13.4 years, range 18 - 55 years, diagnosed with the disease with skin prick testing, were evaluated regarding quality of life by using the General Health Questionnaire-28, the Athens Insomnia Scale (AIS) and the mini Rhinocon-junctivitis Quality of Life Questionnaire. 50 participants without history or al-lergic symptoms during the last 12 months formed the control group. Inde-pendent sample t-tests were conducted to assess significant differences between patients with allergic rhinitis and controls regarding all the examined parameters concerning quality of life. Data was analyzed using Windows statistical package of SPSS version 18.0 (SPSS Inc., Chicago, IL, USA). Statistical significance was set a priori at 0.05. Results: Dust mite, mixed grass and pollens were the most common allergens found in patients with allergic rhinitis. It was also observed that the examined patients showed statistically worse results concerning not only physical and social activities but also quality of sleep and nasal or other symptoms as compared to healthy controls (p 0.05). Conclusion: Allergic rhinitis negatively affected the quality of life especially the parameters that were related to psychosocial activities and sleep, which might have an impact on daily living.
Highlights
Allergic rhinitis (AR) is an IgE-mediated inflammatory chronic disorder of the nasal mucosa caused by exposure to allergens [1] [2] which affects a significant percentage of population varying from 10% - 35% among different countries [3]-[8] with an increasing trend over the last years attributed to higher environmental exposure to allergic factors, longer stay in closed spaces and other social or economic causes [9] [10] [11].Nasal symptoms such as nasal congestion, watery rhinorrhea, nasal itching, sneezing and post-nasal drip, are primarily observed in patients with AR [12] [13]
Allergic rhinitis negatively affected the quality of life especially the parameters that were related to psychosocial activities and sleep, which might have an impact on daily living
The most common allergens that were found in the group of allergic rhinitis and are presented in Figure 1, were dust mite, mixed grass and pollens with 63.4%, 60.2%, 48.6% of patients testing positive, respectively (Figure 1)
Summary
Allergic rhinitis (AR) is an IgE-mediated inflammatory chronic disorder of the nasal mucosa caused by exposure to allergens [1] [2] which affects a significant percentage of population varying from 10% - 35% among different countries [3]-[8] with an increasing trend over the last years attributed to higher environmental exposure to allergic factors, longer stay in closed spaces and other social or economic causes [9] [10] [11] Nasal symptoms such as nasal congestion, watery rhinorrhea, nasal itching, sneezing and post-nasal drip, are primarily observed in patients with AR [12] [13]. Conclusion: Allergic rhinitis negatively affected the quality of life especially the parameters that were related to psychosocial activities and sleep, which might have an impact on daily living
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