Gender differences revealed by the Brief Illness Perception Questionnaire in allergic rhinitis

The increasing prevalence of allergic rhinitis (AR) is reported worldwide. Illness perception (IP) assessment is warranted in current routine clinical practice to assist communication between patients and medical staff, and improve adherence to treatment and disease outcome.

To investigate a group of patients with AR in terms of their IP by the Brief Illness Perception Questionnaire (BIPQ) and to correlate the findings with demographic and clinical features.

In this observational questionnaire-based study, a successive series of patients treated for AR at the Allergology and Immunology Teaching Hospital, Clinical Centre of Serbia in Belgrade, were enrolled from September 2010 to January 2011, and 93 valid questionnaires were analyzed. Each item of the BIPQ assessed one dimension of IP like the consequences, timeline, personal control, treatment control, identity, coherence, emotional representation and concern.

The patients' average age: 35.25 ± 12.42; male/female ratio: 0.79; the overall BIPQ score = 34.69 ± 11.89. The highest item-related scores were found for treatment control (8.17 ± 2.28), illness understanding (7.34 ± 2.96) and emotional representation (6.30 ± 3.45), and the lowest for identity (4.8 ± 2.78) and affection (4.83 ± 2.65). Women compared with men perceive AR as a significantly more threatening disease (P = 0.04). No significant correlation between the BIPQ total or item-related scores was found for any other demographic or clinical feature.

The BIPQ, which allows rapid assessment of IP and reveals gender differences in AR, is a convenient tool for use in routine clinical practice. Further investigation is needed to demonstrate how IP may influence patients' behavior in AR, treatment adherence and disease outcome.