Upper airway and skin symptoms in allergic and non-allergic asthma: Results from the Swedish GA²LEN study

ABSTRACT

Background: Allergic and non-allergic asthma are viewed as separate entities, despite sharing similarities. The aims of this study were to determine differences in symptoms from the upper airways and the skin in allergic and non-allergic asthma. The secondary aims were to identify childhood risk factors and to compare quality of life in the two asthma groups. Methods: This cohort (age 17–76 years) consisted of 575 subjects with allergic or non-allergic asthma and 219 controls. The participants participated in an interview, spirometry, FeNO, skin prick test, and responded to the Mini Asthma Quality of Life Questionnaire. Results: Self-reported allergic rhinitis was significantly more common in both allergic and non-allergic asthma (82.3 and 40.7%) groups compared with the controls. The prevalence of chronic rhinosinusitis (CRS) was similar in both asthma groups. Eczema was significantly more common in both asthmatic groups (72.3 and 59.8%) than controls (47.0%) (p < 0.001 and p = 0.012). Severe respiratory infection in childhood and parental allergy were risk factors for both allergic and non-allergic asthma groups. Quality of life was significantly lower in non-allergic than allergic asthma groups (p = 0.01). Conclusion: Concomitant symptoms from the upper airways and the skin were significantly more common in both allergic and non-allergic asthma. This indicates that non-allergic asthma has a systemic component with similarities to what is found in allergic asthma. There were similarities in the childhood risk factor pattern between the two types of asthma but asthma-related quality of life was lower in the non-allergic asthma group.

KEYWORDS:

• Allergy
• asthma
• eczema
• rhinitis

Declaration of interest

Kjell Alving has received consultancy fees from Aerocrine AB (producer of exhaled NO devices). None of the funding agencies or industry partners had any role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish or preparation of the manuscript. None of the other authors have any conflict of interest to declare with regard to present manuscript.

Additional information

Funding

This study was carried out as part of the GA²LEN survey and was financially supported by the EU Sixth Framework Programme for Research, contract no. FOOD-CT-2004-506378. The study was also supported financially by the Swedish Heart and Lung Foundation 20110181, the Swedish Asthma and Allergy Foundation 2008021 and the Swedish Association against Heart and Lung Diseases. The Gothenburg part of the study was mainly funded by the VBG Group Centre for Asthma and Allergy Research.