Frequency and compliance of specific immunotherapy in patients with allergic rhinitis from two German Federal States

Abstract

Background: Specific immunotherapy (SIT) is considered to be the only causal treatment of allergic rhinitis. The number of patients with allergic rhinitis receiving SIT depends on the region of origin. In Germany only about 7% of patients with allergic rhinitis were reported to have been treated with SIT. We analysed the frequency and compliance of specific immunotherapy (SIT) in patients with allergic rhinitis from two German Federal States, concretely North Rhine-Westphalia and Bavaria.<P>Methods: From 2011 to 2013, we recruited 952 patients suffering from allergic symptoms of the upper respiratory tract, 476 living for at least 20 years in North Rhine-Westphalia, 476 living for at least 20 years in Bavaria, as part of a study initiated by the German Federal Environment Agency. Amongst others, patients completed epidemiological and medical questionnaires. Here, we analysed the patients' answers on questions concerning allergic rhinitis and SIT. The questions were taken from the First wave of the German Health Interview and Examination Survey for Adults (DEGS1) conducted by the Robert Koch-Institute. Bivariate testing for significant differences was performed with the Chi Square test, p values < 0.05 (two tailed) were considered significant.<P>Results: From 952 patients, 705 patients reported to suffer or to have suffered from allergic rhinitis diagnosed by a medical doctor. From these 705 patients, 46.5% had received SIT. The majority of the SIT-patients (88.5%) had received the treatment as subcutaneous injections (SCIT), and 58.5% of the SIT-patients regularly completed the treatment. There were no significant differences in these parameters between the two German Federal States (data not shown).<P>From the 193 SIT-patients who regularly completed the treatment, 49.7% reported a subjective improvement of allergic symptoms. The frequency of SIT-patients with improvement of symptoms was significantly higher in North Rhine-Westphalia (57.1%) than in Bavaria (42.1%) (p=0.037).<P>Discussion: Our data revealed a much higher percentage of patients with allergic rhinitis who received SIT than reported before. The treatment compliance of the patients was also higher than expected compared to published data. The limitations of the present study were, however, that<BR>Quelle: http://eaaci.multilearning.com/