Is non-allergic rhinitis as bad as allergic?
Reviewed by Hasssan Mohammed

Non-allergic rhinitis (NAR) occurs when rhinitis symptoms are not associated with allergic, infective or anatomical reason. It is responsible for almost half of all cases of rhinitis and affects around 300 million worldwide. Assessing NAR patients’ quality of life (QoL) was not performed widely before in contrast to allergic rhinitis (AR). These authors validated a questionnaire that is commonly used in allergic rhinitis, mini Rhinoconjunctivitis Quality-of-Life (mini RQLQ) in NAR patients, then they assessed QoL in patients with NAR compared with QoL in AR patients. The authors also compared between treatments of patients with NAR and those with AR. There was approximately 50% response rate (287 AR patients and 160 NAR patients). Patients with NAR had higher scores (more impairment) on mini RQLQ when compared with AR but the difference was not significant. However, NAR patients had significantly higher scores for blocked and runny nose. Another finding was that significantly fewer patients with NAR are on treatment when compared with AR (42% versus 53%). The authors concluded that both rhinitis subtypes similarly affect QoL. They also concluded that lack of knowledge of an effective NAR treatment could be responsible for both reduced quality of life and the smaller number of patients on treatment in NAR. This study highlights the complexity of NAR and provides an insight into its effects on QoL. NAR may be further categorised but results here were not subject to subtype analysis and the response rate could lead to potential bias and negatively impact on the value of this study.

Quality of life is significantly impaired in nonallergic rhinitis patients.
Segboer CL, Terreehorst I, Gevorgyan A, et al.
ALLERGY
2018;73:1094-100.