To the Editor,
As a part of the Finnish Allergy Programme 2008-2018 [1], we surveyed patients to assess allergic rhinitis symptoms, the use of medications and health care services in Finland.
The study cohort consisted of 1,114 patients aged 5–75 years (mean age, 47 years; 72% females) who obtained asthma or allergy medication from 382 Finnish pharmacies (47% of all 812 pharmacies) across the country. The participants were the first consecutive 1–5 clients per pharmacy purchasing asthma or allergy medication during 1 week period in September 2010 [2]. Participants (or their parents for those 5 to 16 years old) completed a self-administered questionnaire to assess their allergy symptoms, use of medications, health care service use (number of hospital admissions and physician appointments).
In those patients with self-reported allergic rhinitis, we examined symptom severity by using the Rhinasthma questionnaire and an allergy severity score on numeric rating scale (NRS). Rhinitis was rated as no symptoms (0 to 1), mild symptoms (2 to 5), moderate symptoms (6 to 8) and severe symptoms (9 to 10). We studied the determinants of moderate-severe allergic rhinitis (NRS 6 to 10, n = 682) and the correlation of NRS and Rhinasthma questionnaire...
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