Behavioural patterns in allergic rhinitis medication in Europe: A study using MASK‐air® real‐world data
Background Co‐medication is common among patients with allergic rhinitis (AR), but its dimension and patterns are unknown. This is particularly relevant since AR is understood differently across European countries, as reflected by rhinitis‐related search patterns in Google Trends. This study aims to...
Saved in:
Published in | Allergy (Copenhagen) Vol. 77; no. 9; pp. 2699 - 2711 |
---|---|
Main Authors | , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , |
Format | Journal Article Web Resource |
Language | English |
Published |
Denmark
Blackwell Publishing Ltd
01.09.2022
Wiley Wiley-Blackwell |
Subjects | |
Online Access | Get full text |
Cover
Loading…
Summary: | Background
Co‐medication is common among patients with allergic rhinitis (AR), but its dimension and patterns are unknown. This is particularly relevant since AR is understood differently across European countries, as reflected by rhinitis‐related search patterns in Google Trends. This study aims to assess AR co‐medication and its regional patterns in Europe, using real‐world data.
Methods
We analysed 2015–2020 MASK‐air® European data. We compared days under no medication, monotherapy and co‐medication using the visual analogue scale (VAS) levels for overall allergic symptoms (‘VAS Global Symptoms’) and impact of AR on work. We assessed the monthly use of different medication schemes, performing separate analyses by region (defined geographically or by Google Trends patterns). We estimated the average number of different drugs reported per patient within 1 year.
Results
We analysed 222,024 days (13,122 users), including 63,887 days (28.8%) under monotherapy and 38,315 (17.3%) under co‐medication. The median ‘VAS Global Symptoms’ was 7 for no medication days, 14 for monotherapy and 21 for co‐medication (p < .001). Medication use peaked during the spring, with similar patterns across different European regions (defined geographically or by Google Trends). Oral H1‐antihistamines were the most common medication in single and co‐medication. Each patient reported using an annual average of 2.7 drugs, with 80% reporting two or more.
Conclusions
Allergic rhinitis medication patterns are similar across European regions. One third of treatment days involved co‐medication. These findings suggest that patients treat themselves according to their symptoms (irrespective of how they understand AR) and that co‐medication use is driven by symptom severity.
This study aims to assess allergic rhinitis co‐medication and its regional patterns in Europe, using real‐world data. Patients tend to treat themselves for allergic rhinitis according to their symptoms rather than according to guideline indications. Medication patterns in patients with allergic rhinitis appear to be similar across European regions. |
---|---|
Bibliography: | Funding information MASK. ObjectType-Article-1 SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1 ObjectType-Feature-2 content type line 23 scopus-id:2-s2.0-85126344447 |
ISSN: | 0105-4538 1398-9995 1398-9995 |
DOI: | 10.1111/all.15275 |