Prevalence of asthma and severity of allergic rhinitis comparing 2 perennial allergens: house dust mites and Parietaria judaica pollen.

BACKGROUND

Allergic rhinitis (AR) is an increasingly prevalent worldwide disease that has a considerable impact on quality of life and health care costs. Asthma and AR may be part of the same disease, with AR leading to an increased risk of asthma.

OBJECTIVES

To assess the prevalence of asthma in patients with AR due to house dust mites (HDMs) or Parietaria judaica and analyze the characteristics of asthma and AR in each group.

METHODS

Cross-sectional, multicenter study with recording of demographic and clinical characteristics. All patients had AR confirmed by symptoms and a positive skin prick test to HDMs or P judaica. They were classified according to the severity and frequency ofAR following the Allergic Rhinitis and its Impact on Asthma (ARIA) and modified ARIA criteria and according to the severity of asthma following the Global Initiative for Asthma criteria.

RESULTS

We studied 395 patients (226 in the HDM group and 169 in the Pjudaica group) with a mean (SD) age of 43 (15.3) years. Using the modified ARIA criteria, we detected more severe and persistent AR in the P judaica group than in the HDM group (44.5% vs 24.8%, P < .001). Nevertheless, there were no statistically significant differences between the groups in terms of the severity or prevalence (50% in HDM vs 47.9% in P judaica, P = .685) of asthma.

CONCLUSION

AR due to P judaica pollen, which behaves like a perennial allergen, is associated with the same prevalence of asthma and with more severe rhinitis than AR due to HDMs.