Evaluation of children with allergic and non-allergic rhinitis and the effect of obesity/overweight in patients with allergic rhinitis

Year 2025, Volume: 7 Issue: 2, 177 - 183, 21.03.2025

Hilal Ünsal , Beyza Akalın Ertürk

Abstract

Aims: Allergic rhinitis (AR) and obesity are two of the most prevalent chronic health diseases in children. This report aims to investigate to types of allergic and non-allergic rhinitis (NAR) and the association between the frequency and severity of rhinitis symptoms in AR patients with and without overweight/obesity.
Methods: Patients aged 5-18 years with rhinitis symptoms who were referred to Sincan Training and Research Hospital pediatric immunology and allergy outpatient clinic were retrospectively evaluated. Demographic, clinical and laboratory characteristics of patients were recorded.
Results: The study included 385 children with a median age of 11 years (IQR8-14) (53.5% males). 31 (8.1%) of patients had atopic dermatitis and 22 (5.7 %) of patients had asthma. 283 (73.5%) patients were in the AR group. Total IgE level and eosinophil count were found significantly higher in AR group [256 (113-995) vs. 280 (160-480)] than NAR group [64 (25.5-210) vs. 170 (90-310)] (p=0.002 vs. p=<0.001). 61.3 % of patients were sensitized to grass pollen, 21% to cat, and 9.9% to house dust-mite. The number of patients with moderate-to-severe rhinitis were higher in AR group (65%) compared to NAR group (35%) (p=0.005). Nasal congestion (77.7%), sneezing (75.3%), rhinorrhea (42.6%) were more common symptoms. Postnasal drip, snoring-mouth breathing and adenoid hypertrophy were more common in the NAR group compared to AR group (p=0.011, p=0.013 and p<0.001, respectively). Among patients with AR, there were 79 (28%) patients with overweight/obesity. The rate of moderate-tosevere rhinitis was 68.4% in obese/overweight group and 63.7% in the non-obese/overweight group.
Conclusion: Our study found that moderate-to-severe rhinitis was higher in the AR group than the NAR group. No difference was found between the frequency and severity of rhinitis symptoms and aeroallergen sensitivities in patients with and without obesity/overweight.

Keywords

Rhinitis, allergic, severity, children, obesity

Ethical Statement

Ethics committee approval was obtained for this retrospective study (Decision number: 2024-BÇEK/151)

Supporting Institution

no

Thanks

no

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