Quality of Life in Allergic Rhinitis and Asthma

Abstract

Quality of life has been found to be impaired both in patients with asthma and in patients with allergic rhinitis, but the relative burden of these diseases has not been investigated. We analyzed answers to the SF-36 questionnaire from 850 subjects recruited in two French centers participating in the European Community Respiratory Health Survey, a population-based study of young adults. Both asthma and allergic rhinitis were associated with an impairment in quality of life. However, 78% of asthmatics also had allergic rhinitis. Subjects with allergic rhinitis but not asthma (n = 240) were more likely than subjects with neither asthma nor rhinitis (n = 349) to report problems with social activities, difficulties with daily activities as a result of emotional problems, and poorer mental well-being. Patients with both asthma and allergic rhinitis (n = 76) experienced more physical limitations than patients with allergic rhinitis alone, but no difference was found between these two groups for concepts related to social/mental health. As asthma was not found to further impair the quality of life in subjects with allergic rhinitis for concepts related to mental disability and well-being, and as subjects with asthma often also suffer from allergic rhinitis, further studies on quality of life in asthma should ensure that the impairment in quality of life attributed to asthma could not result from concomitant allergic rhinitis.

Impact of Allergic Rhinitis on Quality of Life in Patients with Bronchial Asthma

“…In agreement with Leynaert et al (2000), (1) we found that patient with allergic rhinitis suffer from signicantly lower quality of life if compared with control. Further impairment was noticed in asthmatic patients with or without allergic rhinitis.…”

“…Moreover, we found that reduced PCS is significantly correlated with the severity of asthma as assessed by FEV 1 level as previously stated. (1,23,24) In concordance with Leynaert and co workers, (1) individual analysis revealed that older age and longer duration of symptoms considered as risk factors for reduced HRQOL, particularly in patients with both asthma and allergic Rhinitis, as they were the oldest group with the longest duration of symptoms. Moreover, Patients with a BMI less than 25 kg/m 2 were shown to have better SF-36 scores in all domains that also add another risk factor for reduction in HRQOL in asthmatics as they had higher BMI if compared with other groups.…”

“…However, it is now widely acknowledged that the personal burden of illness, as perceived by the patient, cannot be fully assessed by objective measures of disease severity, because for diseases such as asthma and allergic rhinitis, traditional clinical indices only moderately correlate with how patients feel and are able to function on a daily basis. (1) Health-related quality of Life (HRQOL) has been considered an important variable to be managed in airway diseases. Allergy and asthma can reduce HRQOL as a result of profound physical and psychosocial complications.…”

Freqüência de sintomas associados à asma e doenças alérgicas em adultos jovens, na cidade de Santo André, SP

“…Leynaert et al 25 comprovaram que a relação entre a gravidade da RA e piora da qualidade de vida é mais evidente em mulheres, conforme os dados mostrados na tabela 3.…”

Impacto de la Inmunoterapia subcutánea con Dermatophagoides farinae y Dermatophagoides pteronyssinus sobre la calidad de vida de pacientes con rinitis y asma alérgica

“…Por otra parte, el empleo en este estudio del SF-36 permitió comparar el resultado relativo al asma y la rinitis alérgica con otras enfermedades (40). Un beneficio adicional fue conocer la diferencia mínima clínicamente significativa, lo que permitió confirmar que los cambios en los valores promedio entre los dominios del SF-36 superiores a nueve puntos eran clínicamente importantes, justificando, igualmente, subsecuentes modificaciones en el tratamiento de los pacientes (13).…”