Evaluation of respiratory allergies burden and management in primary care and comparative analysis of health care data from Romania, Poland, Czech Republic and Bulgaria - preliminary study.

BACKGROUND Respiratory allergies mostly allergic rhinitis and asthma represent an important and increasing public health problem and one of the priorities for the European health systems. There is an increasing public concern regarding the persistence and severity of allergic diseases and many difficulties of health systems in providing prompt specialized medical assistance. Our study aims to highlight the main results of the Alliance 4Life project focused on the evaluation of the burden and management of respiratory allergies in primary care from Romania and comparative health-related data from four Central and Eastern European countries. METHOD We developed a questionnaire focused on patients with allergic rhinitis and asthma directly addressed to general practitioner (GP) specialists from Romania who attended the annual national conference in Bucharest. RESULTS The main results showed that patients with respiratory allergies are frequently encountered in primary care practice, only a few patients are evaluated by allergists and there is a clear need for education in this field. CONCLUSIONS This preliminary study confirms that respiratory allergies represent a considerable burden in primary care and the questionnaire may be a useful tool in further studies considering the experience of other healthcare systems. More advanced studies integrating epidemiology with data on air pollution and environmental conditions should be envisaged.