Prevalence Of Allergic Rhinitis and Its Perceived Effect on Academic Activity Among College Students –  A Cross-Sectional Study

Ripudamansingh Chauhan; Rajesh  S.K.; Shweta Chauhan

doi:10.55489/njcm.13420226

Authors

Ripudamansingh Chauhan Swami Vivekananda Yoga Anusandhana Samsthana, Bangalore
Rajesh S.K. Swami Vivekananda Yoga Anusandhana Samsthana, Bangalore https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2586-7930
Shweta Chauhan Ipcowala Naturopathy and Yoga Center, Sokhda, Vadodara, Gujarat, India https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8358-7331

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.55489/njcm.13420226

Keywords:

Allergic rhinitis, Academic activity, Cross sectional study, Prevalence, Comorbidity

Abstract

Background: Allergic rhinitis (AR) is a widespread and under diagnosed upper airway disease. It has significant social and economic burden. Symptoms may cause fatigue, mood changes and difficult sleep that may have deleterious effect on student’s academic activity.

Methods: This was an observational cross-sectional study among 1337 college students in Vadodara city of Gujarat, selected by cluster sampling method. Response was recorded using SFAR (Score for allergic rhinitis) scale and a semi structured questionnaire.

Results: Prevalence of AR using SFAR was 19.22% among college students, out of them 65.4% were girls and 34.6% boys. The prevalence of two major variant of AR, perennial and seasonal was 38.91% and 51.75% respectively. 81.32% were aware about their allergy, 20.23% had gone for allergy test and 73.08% among them resulted positive. 82.49% students had perceived that AR is affecting their academic activity among SFAR≥7 group.

Conclusion: The results of this survey showed elevated prevalence of AR among college students in Vadodara city; however, allergy tests and physician visits for AR conditions were less. Major proportion that had self-reported AR has shown associated comorbidity. Students with AR, perceive a negative effect on their academic activity that equally affects girls and boys.

References

Varshney J, Varshney H. Allergic rhinitis: an overview. Indian Journal of Otolaryngology and Head & Neck Surgery. 2015 Jun;67(2):143-9. doi: 10.1007/s12070-015-0828-5

Bousquet J, Khaltaev N, Cruz AA, et al. Allergic rhinitis and its impact on asthma (ARIA) 2008. Allergy. 2008 Apr;63:8-160. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1398-9995.2007.01620.x

Greiner AN, Hellings PW, Rotiroti G, et al. Allergic rhinitis. The Lancet. 2011 Dec 17;378(9809):2112-22. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(11)60130-X

Brożek JL, Bousquet J, Agache I, et al. Allergic Rhinitis and its Impact on Asthma (ARIA) guidelines—2016 revision. Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology. 2017 Oct 1;140(4):950-8. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaci.2017.03.050

Dara PK, Meena HM, Kumari P, et al. Allergic Rhinitis and Bronchial Asthma Comorbidity: A Cross Sectional Question-naire Study in Children (6-18 Years) of Urban and Rural Jaipur (India). Journal of Medical Science and Clinical Research.2017 July; 5(7): 24417-22.DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.18535/jmscr/v5i7.18

Chandrika D. Allergic rhinitis in India-an overview.Int J Oto-rhinolaryngol Head Neck Surg. 2017 Jan;3(1):1-6. http://www.ijorl.com. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.18203/issn.2454-5929.ijohns20164801

Gaur SN, Gupta K, Rajpal S, et al. Prevalence of bronchial asthma and allergic rhinitis among urban and rural adult population of Delhi. Indian J Allergy Asthma Immunol. 2006;20(2):90-7.

Léger D, Annesi-Maesano I, Carat F, et al. Allergic rhinitis and its consequences on quality of sleep: an unexplored area. Ar-chives of internal medicine. 2006 Sep 18;166(16):1744-8. doi:10.1001/archinte.166.16.1744

Marshall PS, O’Hara C, Steinberg P. Effects of seasonal allergic rhinitis on fatigue levels and mood. Psychosomatic Medicine. 2002 Jul 1;64(4):684-91.

Yuksel H, Dinc G, Sakar A, et al. Prevalence and comorbidity of allergic eczema, rhinitis, and asthma in a city in western Tur-key. Journal of Investigational Allergology and Clinical Immu-nology. 2008 Jan 1;18(1):31.

Gryglas A. Allergic rhinitis and chronic daily headaches: is there a link?. Current neurology and neuroscience reports. 2016 Apr 1;16(4):33. DOI: 10.1007/s11910-016-0631-z

Yeo SG, Park DC, Eun YG, et al. The role of allergic rhinitis in the development of otitis media with effusion: effect on eusta-chian tube function. American journal of otolaryngology. 2007 May 1;28(3):148-52. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.amjoto.2006.07.011

Stachler RJ, Dworkin-Valenti JP. Allergic laryngitis: unravel-ing the myths. Current opinion in otolaryngology & head and neck surgery. 2017 Jun 1;25(3):242-6. doi: 10.1097/MOO.0000000000000354

Lamb CE, Ratner PH, Johnson CE, et al. Economic impact of workplace productivity losses due to allergic rhinitis com-pared with select medical conditions in the United States from an employer perspective. Current medical research and opinion. 2006 Jun 1;22(6):1203-10. https://doi.org/10.1185/030079906X112552

Annesi‐Maesano I, Didier A, Klossek M, et al. The score for al-lergic rhinitis (SFAR): a simple and valid assessment method in population studies. Allergy. 2002 Feb;57(2):107-14. https://doi.org/10.1034/j.1398-9995.2002.1o3170.x

Amizadeh M, Safizadeh H, Bazargan N, et al. Survey on the prevalence of allergic rhinitis and its effect on the quality of high school students’ life. Iranian journal of otorhinolaryn-gology. 2013;25(71):79. PMID: 24303424

Cingi C, Songu M, Ural A, et al. The score for allergic rhinitis study in Turkey. American journal of rhinology & allergy. 2011 Sep;25(5):333-7. doi: 10.2500/ajra.2011.25.3665

Kakaje A, Alhalabi MM, Alyousbashi A, et al. Allergic rhinitis and its epidemiological distribution in Syria: a high preva-lence and additional risks in war time. BioMed Research In-ternational. 2020 May 23;2020. https://doi.org/10.1155/2020/7212037

Paul R, Bagri P, Mondal J, et al. Study on Prevalence of Allergic Rhinitis in a Sample Population from Eastern India using the Score for Allergic Rhinitis (SFAR) Technique. Asian Journal of Pharmaceutical and Health Sciences. 2014;4(2).

Di R, Lou X, Ye L, et al. Prevalence of allergic rhinitis and its effect on the quality of life of middle school students. Int J Clin Exp Med. 2016;9(8):15772–9.

Sheikh A, Harris J, Khan-Wasti S, et al. Seasonal allergic rhinitis is associated with a detrimental effect on examination performance in United Kingdom teenagers: Case-control study. J Allergy Clin Immunol. 2007; 120 (2): 381–7. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaci.2007.03.034