Allergic Rhinitis (AR) is a worldwide spread disease and has an important impact on social life, sleep quality (SQ), school and work productivity and huge costs. ISMAR was designed to identify attitudes and trends among physicians managing AR. ISMAR 2 is the second phase.
Methods:
ISMAR is an international, multicenter, non-interventional, cross-sectional study in adults and children (≥ 6 years) with physician-diagnosed AR of at least 1 year of duration.
Physicians (GPs/Family doctors/internists, pediatricians, allergists/pulmonologists, and ENT) working in public and private sectors or both were selected from master lists of physicians attending AR patients and invited to participate in the study. They answered to the Investigator’s Questionnaire (guidelines awareness, relevant AR symptoms, preference for prescribing medication among others) and recruited consecutive patients to whom the ISMAR questionnaire was administered. Data collection was performed during a single visit. A patient's questionnaire and a Case Record Form were also filled in. Statistical analysis was descriptive. For statistical inferences, Student or Wilcoxon tests were performed according to the variables normality. Patients fulfilling the following criteria were considered as optimally managed:
- Patient education, environmental control and allergen avoidance
- Optimal pharmacological treatment according to ARIA guidelines
Results:
One-hundred and seventy eight physicians were surveyed, with a mean age of 50.3 ± 8.2 years, 151 of them were males (84.8%). The major group of specialists managing AR-patients were ENTs (38.8%), followed by allergists/pulmonologists (24.7%), paediatricians (20.8%), and GPs/family practitioners/internists (15.2%) in urban area (97.2%).
On average, investigators had 22.6 ± 8.7 years of experience. The type of medical practice was public sector 10.7%, private practice (47.2%), and mixed (42.1%).
Two thousand three hundred patients (2298 eligible) were included in 9 countries [5 new countries and new centres in 4 countries that already participated in ISMAR phase 1]. They were included in 22 centres in Algeria, 499 in 43 centres in Egypt, 290 in 21 centres in Gulf countries (United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Kuwait), 502 in 40 centres in India, 200 in 20 centres in Islamic Republic of Iran, 300 in 20 centres in Pakistan and 200 in 12 centres in Saudi Arabia.
Conclusions:
ISMAR 2 has made possible the participation of physicians from different regions of the world treating AR patients. The doctors surveyed and the patients recruited would allow us to gain insight concerning different aspects of the management of AR at global level.
The ISMAR study was supported by Sanofi.