Enquête sur le poids de la rhinite allergique en France

Background

This paper presents the results from France of a prospective, cross-sectional, international survey conducted among patients and physicians to identify symptom perception and the impact of allergic rhinitis on health-related quality of life.

Methods

Data about the presence, severity and impact of symptoms were recorded by 504 patients and matched with data from their physicians. Health-related quality of life was assessed using the Mini Rhinoconjunctivitis Quality of Life Questionnaire.

Results

According to the physicians’ assessments, a large proportion (71%) of patients had moderate or severe disease, persistent disease (48.3%), and comorbidities such as asthma (32.3%) and anxiety (19%). Persistent disease was present in 55.3% of patients with perennial allergic rhinitis and 44.9% with seasonal allergic rhinitis. Physicians tended to underestimate the incidence of some symptoms reported by the patients, most notably cough, headache, and itchy eyes. Health-related quality of life was negatively correlated with disease severity and number of symptom-free days. Allergic rhinitis had a significantly greater impact on patients with more persistent disease compared with those with intermittent disease (2.0 ± 1.3 versus 1.8 ± 1.2; p < 0.05); nevertheless, 73.9% of patients with intermittent disease reported some impairment of their daily life.

Conclusions

Allergic rhinitis remains a significant health problem in France due to the high prevalence of moderate or severe, persistent disease in patients presenting during routine care as well as to the impact of the disease on health-related quality of life. Patients and physicians differed significantly in their perception of disease severity and in the reporting of some symptoms, including ocular symptoms and cough.