Abstract
Background: Asthma is one of the prime diseases of public health interest in the world, affecting around 330 million people globally. Rhinosinusitis disease is a common inflammatory disorder associated with asthma. Asthma and rhinosinusitis share the same pathophysiological mechanism and often occur together. There is no treatment for the root of asthma, but the symptoms can be relieved for a prolonged period. The root of chronic rhinosinusitis is still a challenge to be cured but the clinical symptoms can be improved by symptomatic treatment like topical steroids and nasal saline which are also considered asthma symptoms relievers. Untreated rhinosinusitis may worsen asthma patients' condition. There were limited studies that assessed the prevalence of asthma with rhinosinusitis among adult and pediatric patients in Saudi Arabia.
Methods: This study is a retrospective cross-sectional. The data withdrew from the King Abdulaziz Medical City Best Care system from 2016 to 2020. Inclusion criteria were patients with a confirmed diagnosis of asthma and rhinosinusitis, age 18 years and above. A data collection sheet was used, and it included two sections. The first section was the demographical data such as age, gender, diagnosis, smoking status, medical history, date of admission, medications, and allergic status. The second section was the disease history, signs, and symptoms. The data was being analyzed using SPSS.
Results: The prevalence of rhinosinusitis among asthma patients was 0.45% (95% CI 0.3–0.6) which were 5 patients out of 1,688 asthmatic patients, and 1683 patients had asthma without rhinosinusitis (99.7%). Females were 1,139 (67.7%) while males were 544 (32.3%). The number of asthma patients with rhinosinusitis was 3 females and 2 males. The development of rhinosinusitis in asthma patients was less common. Most of the asthma patients 945 (56%) were 60 years old or older, and 740 (44%) were 18–59 years old. Asthma patients with a past medical history of COPD were 40 (2.3%). Moreover, 33 (1.9%) of asthma patients had bronchiectasis. The majority of asthma patients 1,334 (79%) had unknown allergic status while 349 (21%) were allergic. Patients who had asthma with rhinosinusitis had unknown allergy status 5 (100%). The smoking status revealed that 54 (3.1%) of asthma patients were smokers, but none of them had rhinosinusitis. However, 1634 (96.9%) were non-smokers.
Conclusions: The prevalence of rhinosinusitis among asthma patients was considered low.
Footnotes
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