JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

The number of allergic rhinitis (AR) patients has exceeded 500 million globally, due to the unstable curative effect, it is easy to produce mental and psychological disorders. However, most of the relevant existing literatures are one-on-one retrospective analyses or targeted meta-analyses of AR with psychological disorders like irritability, depression and anxiety, while the "multi-hospital + interdisciplinary" multiple regression analyses are scarce.

Objective:

To precisely identify the psychological disorders of patients with AR who were diagnosed and treated in the five most renowned hospitals in Chengdu, China over the past five years using ten classification methods, so as to attract the attention and care from the otolaryngologists.

Methods:

To precisely identify the psychological disorders of patients with AR who were diagnosed and treated in the 5 most renowned hospitals in Chengdu (in China) over the past 5 years using 10 classification methods. 1. The self-reporting inventory 90 (SCL-90) was used to group and score the mental state of 827 strictly screened AR patients according to 9 classification criteria. Then, the scores were compared within groups. 2. Inter-group comparison was made between the study group and the Chinese norm, and the positive factors for psychological disorders were extracted. 3. Four symptoms in the study group, i.e. nasal itching, sneezing, clear discharge and nasal congestion, were scored on the visual analogue scale (VAS). 4. Partial correlation analysis was performed between the positive factors in 2 and the symptom scores in 3 by multiple regression statistical method.

Results:

1. Among 827 patients, 124 (15.0%) had no mental health impairments, 176 (21.3%) had mild impairments, 474 (57.3%) had mild to moderate impairments, 41 (5.0%) had moderate to severe impairments, and 12 (1.4%) had severe impairments. 2. The whole average score of SCL-90 of 827 patients was 2.64 ± 0.25, which corresponded to the mild to moderate mental health impairments. 3. The 827 patients scored significantly higher for 4 positive factors: depression, anxiety, psychosis and others (sleep, diet). 4. Depression was positively correlated with sneezing and clear discharge, anxiety was positively correlated with nasal itching and congestion, psychosis was positively correlated with nasal itching and sneezing, and others (sleep, diet) were positively correlated with clear discharge and nasal congestion.

Conclusions:

AR patients have mild to moderate mental health impairments, of whom women, those with abnormal BMI, age ≥ 45 years, monthly salary < 5110 yuan, disease duration < 13 years, residing in urban areas, high school and above education and indoor laborers are at high risk and require more care, follow-up and comprehensive therapy from otolaryngologists.