Fact checked byKristen Dowd

Read more

November 18, 2024
2 min read
Save

Health-seeking behaviors improve allergic rhinitis

Fact checked byKristen Dowd
You've successfully added to your alerts. You will receive an email when new content is published.

Click Here to Manage Email Alerts

We were unable to process your request. Please try again later. If you continue to have this issue please contact customerservice@slackinc.com.

Key takeaways:

  • Health seeking behaviors significantly predicted allergy and mental health score changes.
  • Using decongestants may negatively affect anxiety symptoms.

BOSTON — Encouraging health-seeking behaviors could expedite recovery for patients with allergic rhinitis, according to a poster at the American College of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology Annual Scientific Meeting.

“Allergy practitioners have come to realize that anxiety and depression and mental health interplays with allergic rhinitis,” Atoosa Kourosh, MD, MPH, RYT, chief medical officer of Holistic Allergy & Immunology, told Healio.

Woman with sinusitis and pressure.
Health seeking behaviors significantly improved allergic rhinitis symptoms. Image: Adobe Stock

“We’ve heard our patients say things like, ‘My allergies are driving me crazy.’ They’ve voiced the impact of the burden of disease on their mental health. But even independent of allergic disease causing mental health strain, people can be going through mental health issues because of their life situation.”

Data was obtained from 357 patients from primary care clinics and payer plans in Florida between Jan. 1 and June 1, 2023. Patients had to have completed both baseline and follow-up assessments.

Researchers defined health-seeking behaviors (HSB) as ones seeking professional help for managing emotional well-being, allergies or both/neither. Data was recorded on patients’ use of intranasal steroids, antihistamines, decongestants and oral leukotriene blockers.

The QHSLab platform instrument was used to electronically obtain data from participants. Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9) and Generalized Anxiety Disorder-7 (GAD-7) were used to determine participants’ depression severity and anxiety symptoms. Results from both questionnaires were used for determining a composite score in the PHQ-GAD-16. The 22-item Sino-Nasal Outcome Test (SNOT-22) was also used to determine severity of nasal symptoms.

Among the 357 patients (mean age, 53.8 years; 64.6% female), those seeking help for emotional well-being as well as allergies had improved SNOT-22 (r = –0.22) and PHQ-GAD16 (r = –0.34) score changes (P < .01 for both). HSBs also showed to be predictors of score changes in the SNOT-22 (beta = –0.19; P < .05) and the PHQ-GAD16 (beta = –0.28; P < .01) questionnaires. There was a weak correlation between use of nasal decongestants and worsening GAD7 (r = 0.032) and SNOT22 (r = 0.134; P = .03) scores.

“A person with higher levels of help-seeking behaviors is more likely to have better outcomes in both their mental health and their allergy,” Kourosh said. “Even if you’re just getting allergy care, your mental health still improves. And if you’re just getting mental health care, you might have some improvement in your allergy.”

From a public health perspective, physicians should motivate their patients to seek help, according to Kourosh.

“There’s been a focus on mental health in the past 5 years, especially since the pandemic,” she said. “But there hasn’t been as much of a focus on allergy and immunology and promoting health care seeking behaviors in our patients.”

For more information:

Atoosa Kourosh, MD, MPH, RYT, can be reached at info@doctoratoosa.com.