Impact of allergic rhinitis on quality of life in patients with bronchial asthma.

UNLABELLED: Allergy and asthma can reduce HRQOL as a result of profound physical and psychosocial complications. Most patients with asthma also suffer from rhinitis, which also impairs quality of life. However, the impact of allergic rhinitis on asthmatic patients has not been investigated.
OBJECTIVE: To assess Quality of life (QOL) in asthmatic patients and assess relative burden of allergic rhinitis on asthmatics' QOL. PATIENTS AND METHODS: we analysed HRQOL questionnaire (SF-36) answers of 219 patients (118 allergic rhinitis, 79 asthma and 22 asthma with allergic rhinitis) and controls (30 healthy individuals), in addition to analysis of questionnaire scores according to patients' characteristic including gender, BMI and duration of symptoms. Moreover, pulmonary function test were done for all patients and control.
RESULTS: HRQOL parameters were significantly lower in females more than males and in patients with BMI>25 if compared with those with BMI<25. Moreover, HRQOL was significantly lower in all 3 patients' groups if compared with control group (P<0.001) in all parameters except mental health and role emotional. Significantly higher scores (SF-36 sub-scales for physical functioning, role-physical, bodily pain) were found among allergic rhinitis patients compared with asthmatics with or without allergic rhinitis. Although, quality of life was worse in asthmatic patients compared to patients with rhinitis alone, no significant difference was found between asthmatics and those with both diseases. Both PCS and MCS scores are significantly lower in patients' groups compared with the control (p<0.05). Asthmatic patients with or without rhinitis tended to have lower PCS and MCS scores than subjects with isolated allergic rhinitis, the difference between the groups was statistically significant only for PCS scores. Moreover, highly significant positive correlation between PCS score and FEV1 in asthmatics with or without allergic rhinitis was detected denoting that PCS score is markedly affected by severity of asthma. (r=0.949, P<0.001).
CONCLUSIONS: Allergic rhinitis has a limited role in reduction of HRQOL. HRQOL is markedly reduced in patients with asthma with or without rhinitis than in those with allergic rhinitis only; this could be related to the severity of asthma more than the presence of associated allergic rhinitis. These findings indicated that allergic rhinitis does not seem to further impair quality of life in subjects with asthma. We recommend that patients with bronchial asthma with or without allergic rhinitis in need of great help from physicians and social workers to improve their physical and mental health. Moreover, further studies with larger populations and longer duration are needed in order to determine the extent to which asthma and rhinitis comorbidities are associated in HRQOL.