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Is physician‐diagnosed allergic rhinitis a risk factor for the development of asthma?
Author(s) -
Van Den Nieuwenhof L.,
Schermer T.,
Bosch Y.,
Bousquet J.,
Heijdra Y.,
Bor H.,
Van Den Bosch W.,
Van Weel C.
Publication year - 2010
Publication title -
allergy
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.363
H-Index - 173
eISSN - 1398-9995
pISSN - 0105-4538
DOI - 10.1111/j.1398-9995.2009.02316.x
Subject(s) - asthma , medicine , risk factor , dermatology , allergy , immunology , intensive care medicine
To cite this article: van den Nieuwenhof L, Schermer T, Bosch Y, Bousquet J, Heijdra Y, Bor H, van den Bosch W, van Weel C. Is physician‐diagnosed allergic rhinitis a risk factor for the development of asthma? Allergy 2010; 65 : 1049–1055. Abstract Background: There is strong evidence that there is a relationship between allergic rhinitis (AR) and asthma, but it is unclear whether there is a causal relation between AR and asthma. The aim of this study was to assess prospectively whether AR is a risk factor for the diagnosis of asthma in a large primary care population. Methods: We performed a historic cohort study of life‐time morbidity that had been recorded prospectively since 1967 in four general practices. Two groups of subjects were selected: (i) patients with diagnosis of AR, (ii) a control group matched using propensity scores. We assessed the risk of physician‐diagnosed asthma in patients with physician‐diagnosed AR compared to subjects without a diagnosis of AR (controls). Results: The study population consisted of 6491 subjects ( n = 2081 patients with AR). Average study follow‐up was 8.4 years. In patients with AR, the frequency of newly diagnosed asthma was 7.6% ( n = 158) compared to 1.6% ( n = 70) in controls ( P < 0.001). After adjusting the effect of AR on asthma diagnosis for registration time, age, gender, eczema and socioeconomic status, having AR was a statistically significant risk factor for asthma (hazard ratio: 4.86, P < 0.001, 95% confidence interval: 3.50–6.73, controls as reference). Conclusion: A diagnosis of AR was an independent risk factor for asthma in our primary care study population. Having physician‐diagnosed AR increased the risk almost fivefold for a future asthma diagnosis.