Assessment of quality of life in patients with perennial allergic rhinitis with the French version of the SF-36 Health Status Questionnaire☆
Section snippets
Patients
One hundred eleven patients of both sexes with perennial allergic rhinitis, ranging in age from 18 to 50 years (mean ± SD: 31.5 ± 8.8 years), were recruited for the study by 11 allergists and five ear, nose, and throat doctors. To be included, patients had to show clinical evidence of perennial allergic rhinitis, which was investigated through suggestive symptoms (runny nose, itchy nose, sneezing, stuffy nose).
The clinical severity of these symptoms was scored on a 5-point scale ranging from no
Characteristics of the subjects
The demographic characteristics of healthy subjects and patients with rhinitis are shown in Table III. Although the mean ages and the male-to-female ratio were similar in both groups, the patients with rhinitis were significantly more educated than the healthy subjects. The duration of rhinitis ranged from 1 to 25 years (mean ± SD: 7.74 ± 5.78 years). The distribution of scores for each of the four rhinitis symptoms evaluated is presented in Fig. 1. In the rhinitis group 44% of the patients
DISCUSSION
The results of this study show that the SF-36 questionnaire, a generic health-related QOL scale, is sensitive enough to detect the impairments of patients affected by perennial allergic rhinitis in their daily activities and that this questionnaire is reliable in this population. Moreover, this study shows for the first time that perennial allergic rhinitis impairs the QOL of patients with moderate to severe rhinitis compared with healthy subjects.
QOL scales can be divided into generic scales,
Acknowledgements
We thank the following investigators for participating in this study: Dr. Anton (Allergist), Nantes; Dr. Arbez (Occupational doctor), Lyon; Dr. Boachon (ENT), Lyon; Dr. Camuzard (ENT), Nice; Prof. Colas (Allergist), Caluire; Dr. Cosset (Occupational doctor), Nantes; Dr. Dautel (Occupational doctor), Neuville s/Saone; Dr. Ducauchuis (ENT), Nantes; Dr. Durand Perdriel (Allergist), Nantes; Dr. Finet (Occupational doctor), Lyon; Dr. Fleury (Allergist), Lyon; Dr. Fontaine (Occupational doctor),
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From aServices des Maladies Respiratoires, Hopital Arnaud de Villeneuve, Montpellier; bLudwig Maximilians Universität München, Institut für Medizinische Psychologie Goethestraβe, München; cMAPI, S.A., Lyon; and dUCB S.A., Chemin du Foriest, Braine-l’Alleud, Belgique.