Assessing allergic rhinitis in developing countries

Area of Science:

• Allergy and Immunology
• Epidemiology
• Global Health

Background:

• Allergic rhinitis (AR) impacts 5-40% of the global population.
• AR is underdiagnosed in developing countries due to limited diagnostic tools.

Purpose of the Study:

• Validate the Score For Allergic Rhinitis (SFAR) questionnaire for use in developing countries.
• Compare SFAR's performance against the International Study of Asthma and Allergies in Childhood (ISAAC) questionnaire for AR prevalence assessment.

Main Methods:

• Six African countries participated, with 100 individuals per country (70 symptomatic, 30 asymptomatic).
• Participants completed both SFAR and ISAAC questionnaires.
• Physician diagnosis and skin prick tests (SPTs) served as the gold standard.

Main Results:

• The SFAR demonstrated high sensitivity (0.84) and specificity (0.81) compared to the gold standard.
• SFAR showed superior sensitivity and equivalent specificity to the ISAAC questionnaire for AR detection.

Conclusions:

• The SFAR is a valuable, standardized screening tool for identifying allergic rhinitis in developing countries.
• It can be utilized for AR information collection in the absence of a direct medical consultation.