Background
Children with allergic diseases such as asthma and atopic dermatitis experience increased gastrointestinal symptoms. Further, physiological and histological abnormalities of the gastrointestinal tract in patients with allergic diseases have been reported. It is not certain whether adult patients experience increased gastrointestinal symptoms.
Methods
A retrospective, case–control study of 7235 adult (⩾20 years old) primary care patients was conducted. A general practitioner diagnosis of irritable bowel syndrome was used to serve as a marker of lower gastrointestinal symptoms. The prevalence of lower gastrointestinal symptoms was calculated in patients with asthma or allergic rhinitis and compared with that in patients with other chronic diseases (insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus, osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis) and with the remaining population.
Results
Gastrointestinal symptoms were significantly more common in patients with asthma (9.9%) as compared with patients with chronic diseases (4.9%; odds ratio (OR) 2.13, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.39 to 2.56; p<0.002) or the remaining non-asthmatic population (5.5%; OR 1.89, 95% CI 1.39 to 2.56; p<0.001). Gastrointestinal symptoms were also significantly more common in patients with allergic rhinitis (7.9%) as compared with patients with chronic diseases (4.9%; OR 1.66, 95% CI 1.02 to 2.7; p<0.05) and the remaining population (5.5%; OR 1.47, 95% CI 1.04 to 2.1; p<0.02). This phenomenon was independent of age, sex and inhaled asthma therapy in the case of patients with asthma.
Conclusions
Our findings support the hypothesis that lower gastrointestinal symptoms are more common in patients with allergic diseases such as asthma and allergic rhinitis.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.