Perennial Allergic Rhinitis

OB/GYN News, Feb 1, 2001 by Sally Koch Kubetin

Patients with perennial allergic rhinitis are more likely than those with seasonal allergic rhinitis to have asthma and to use an intranasal steroid in addition to a second-generation antihistamine, according to an analysis of information in a medical insurance claims database.

William Crown, Ph.D., speaking at the annual meeting of the American College of Allergy, Asthma, and Immunology in Seattle, reported on findings from his retrospective study of medical and prescription claims for 47,579 patients. All patients had been prescribed one of the three second-generation antihistamines used for treating allergic rhinitis during a 12-month period.

Patients who had a persistent pattern of such prescriptions were assumed to have perennial allergic rhinitis; those who had a single prescription and! or prescriptions only in the spring or fall were assumed to have seasonal allergic rhinitis.

Patients with perennial allergic rhinitis represented 23% of those who were treated for allergic rhinitis, reported Dr. Crown of the Medstat Group Inc., Cambridge, Mass., a medical information and consulting company.

Of the patients with perennial allergic rhinitis, half had sinusitis and 22% had asthma; of those with seasonal allergy, 23% had sinusitis and 16% had asthma. Otitis media occurred in 14% of both groups.

Of perennial allergic rhinitis patients, 52% had received a prescription for both a second-generation antihistamine and a nasal steroid, compared with only 33% of seasonal allergy patients. Sixty-nine percent of the perennial rhinitis patients used a nonallergy, nonasthma medication, compared with 48% of those with seasonal allergy.