Prevalence of nasal symptoms and their relation to self-reported asthma and chronic bronchitis/emphysema

Abstract

Little information is available on associations between rhinitis and chronic bronchitis/emphysema (CBE).Self-reported upper airway symptoms, asthma, and CBE were examined in 12,079 adults living in southern Sweden.The response rate was 70% (n=8,469), of whom 33% reported signi®cant nasal symptoms: a blocked nose was reported by 21%; sneezing by 18%; nasal discharge by 17%; and thick yellow nasal discharge by 5.7%. Nasal symptoms and combined nasal and self-reported bronchial disease were generally more common among smokers than nonsmokers. There was little overlap between asthma and CBE, but 46% of those with asthma and 40% of those with CBE had signi®cant nasal symptoms. Best predicting factors (odds ratios >3) for asthma and CBE were nasal symptoms due to exposure to animals and damp/cold air, respectively.One-third of an adult, southern Swedish population, had signi®cant allergic and/or nonallergic nasal symptoms. Nasal symptoms were frequently found to coexist with both asthma and chronic bronchitis/emphysema, suggesting that pan-airway engagement is common in both diseases. Differing associations between types of nasal symptoms and allergic and irritant triggers of nasal symptoms, with regard to asthma and chronic bronchitis/emphysema, emphasize the different natures of these bronchial diseases. Eur Respir J 2001; 17: 596±603.

Allergic Rhinitis and its Impact on Asthma (ARIA) 2008*

“…Prevalence of rhinitis in patients with asthma. The majority of patients with asthma experience rhinitis symptoms (277,648,909,937,945,1882,(1888)(1889)(1890)(1891)(1892)(1893)(1894)(1895)(1896)(1897)(1898)(1899). However, in many instances, symptoms may predominate in one organ and be hidden or unrecognized in other organs even though they exist.…”

Upper airway. 3: Sinonasal involvement in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease

“…8 Montnemery et al conducted a large questionnaire-based study from a random selection of a Swedish population in which information on the presence of chronic nasal symptoms and a self-reported diagnosis of COPD was available for 8469 subjects. Thirty-three percent of the total population reported recurrent or persistent nasal symptoms, compared with 40% of the subjects self-reporting COPD.…”

Rhinosinusitis in COPD: symptoms, mucosal changes, nasal lavage cells and eicosanoids

“…The least frequent symptoms are related to sinus and ear. The same symptom structure was reported by Montnémery and colleagues, 9 although assessed by different methods. A strong positive correlation between SNAQ-11 scores and endoscopic scores was found in our study and is in opposition to the results of Tahamiler and colleagues, 21 who found that 75% of patients with symptom-based diagnosis of chronic nonallergic rhino-sinusitis had no endoscopic pathology.…”

“…9,10 The structure of symptoms seems to be quite significant for this group of patients. The most frequent symptoms, cough and lack of good night's sleep/tiredness/ fatigue may be related more to COPD rather than to upper airway disease.…”

“…8 Montnémery and colleagues 9 reported a prevalence of respiratory symptoms in about 40% of Swedes self-reporting chronic bronchitis or emphysema, compared Asthma was excluded and COPD was conf irmed on the basis of the lack of typical asthmatic symptoms, negative history of allergy, negative skin prick tests, late disease onset (40 years of age), the presence of severe smoking history (20 pack-years) and the presence of irreversible obstruction in spirometry. According to GOLD criteria, 12 stage I was diagnosed in four patients, stage II in 11 patients, stage III in 19 patients and stage IV in eight patients.…”