P W Hellings, et al.
Rhinology . 2020 Sep 29. doi: 10.4193/Rhin20.246. Online ahead of print.
Allergic rhinitis is the most common chronic inflammatory condition. It affects more than 100 million people living in Europe, with a significant impact on individuals, society, and health economies. Most times, patients prefer to self-manage the condition by visiting pharmacies rather than seeking medical advice due to the long wait for an appointment.
Other difficulties to an effective and appropriate allergic rhinitis treatment include the inability to recognize and diagnose it and adequately prescribe a treatment. Lately, there has been a shift into more patient-approach to allergic rhinitis management, focusing on personalized, predictive, preventative, and participatory strategies.
The European Forum for Research and Education in Allergy and Airway Diseases (EUFOREA) and global key opinion leaders have developed a treatment algorithm to facilitate allergic rhinitis treatment in real-life settings. This guide includes a checklist of what to do when assessing patients, including a list of symptoms suggestive of allergic rhinitis, questions on suspected asthma, and instructions on using the visual scales. It consists of five steps: diagnosis, patients classification, therapy definition, product selection, and treatment plan activation. Patient education is central at all stages and their participation in the decision-making process and goal-setting.
This algorithm is concise, simple to use, suitable for all stakeholders, including pharmacies, primary care physicians, ENT doctors, pulmonologists, allergologists, and pediatricians. It provides evidence-based and expert-endorsed recommendations for the management of allergic rhinitis. The full pocket guide is available on the EUFOREA website (www.euforea.eu).
