33.5% “not at all”

42.1% “a little”

19.1% “moderate”

“a lot” 5.3%

Intermitent

Mild

69.5% 6.1%

16.9% 7.5%

Conclusions: Rhinitis is a common but frequently underdiagnosed disease in preschool children. This was the first epidemiological

survey classifying rhinitis according to ARIA guidelines in this age group. About one-fourth of the children with current rhinitis

presented moderate-severe disease.

Natacha Santos (1,2), Ana Margarida Pereira (1,2,3,4), Manuel Branco-Ferreira (5,6), Carlos Nunes (5,7), João Almeida Fonseca (2,3,4,5,8), Jean Bousquet (9), Mário Morais-Almeida (1,5,8) (1) Hospital CUF-Descobertas, Immunoallergy Department, Lisbon, Portugal; (2) Hospital S. João EPE, Allergy and Clinical Immunology Department, Porto, Portugal; (3) Faculdade de Medicina da Universidade do Porto, Health Information and Decision Sciences Department, Porto, Portugal; (4) Hospital and Instituto CUF, Allergy Unit, Porto, Portugal; (5) Sociedade Portuguesa de Alergologia e Imunologia Clínica (SPAIC); (6) Centro Hospitalar Lisboa Norte, Immunoallergy Department, Lisboa, Portugal; (7) Centro de Imunoalergologia do Algarve, Portimão, Portugal; (8) CINTESIS – Center for Research in Health Technologies and Information Systems, Porto, Portugal; (9) Department of Allergy and Respiratory Diseases, University Hospital and INSERM, Montpellier, France

Aims:

a) To estimate the prevalence of current rhinitis in preschool

children using the ISAAC definition

b) To describe individual rhinitis symptoms

c) To classify rhinitis according to the ARIA recommendations

d) To report socio-demographic characteristics associated with

rhinitis in this age group

In relation to this presentation, we declare that there are no conflicts of interest.

Methods:

Cross-sectional, nationwide, population-based study including children aged

3 to 5 years. A multi-step selection strategy was used to obtain a

representative sample. Data were collected at kindergartens and parish

centers by face-to-face interview to caregivers, using an adapted ISAAC

questionnaire. Current rhinitis was defined as having ≥1 rhinitis symptoms in

the last 12 months.

5018 preschool children included

Prevalence of current rhinitis

43.5% [95%CI(42.1-44.9%)]

Prevalence of physician-diagnosed rhinitis

11.7% [95%CI(10.8-12.6%)]

45.8% with sneezing/itching

66.7% with blocked nose

47.7% with runny nose

13.2% had all three symptoms

Moderate-severe rhinitis 24.4%

Persistent rhinitis

13.6% (≥ 4 days/week and ≥ 4 consecutive weeks)

Prevalence of rhinoconjunctivitis

15.3% [95%CI(14.3-16.3%)] 50.4%

72.7%

0.5%

13.7%

2.2% 5.7%

2.6%

25.6% 30.5%

51.9%

80.3%

26.4%

38.6%

7.7% 7.9% 2.8%

37.2%

30.8%

Male gender Living in an urbanarea

Physician diagnosedrhinitis

Current wheezing Physician-diagnosedasthma, ever

Self-reported foodallergy

Self-reported drugallergy

Family history ofallergic disease

Exposed toenvironmental

tobacco smoke athome

Without current rhinitis (n=2839)

With current rhinitis (n=2179)p=0.281

p<0.001

p<0.001

p<0.001

p<0.001 p=0.003 p=0.650

p<0.001 p=0.831

Graphic 2. Comparison between children with and without current rhinitis

Graphic 1. Rhinitis-related interference with daily life