title: Behavioural patterns in allergic rhinitis medication in Europe: A study using MASK‐air® real‐world data
Creators: name: Sousa‐Pinto, Bernardo
name: Sá‐Sousa, Ana
name: Vieira, Rafael José
name: Amaral, Rita
name: Klimek, Ludger
name: Czarlewski, Wienczyslawa
name: Antó, Josep M.
name: Pfaar, Oliver
name: Bedbrook, Anna
name: Kvedariene, Violeta
name: Ventura, Maria Teresa
name: Ansotegui, Ignacio J.
name: Bergmann, Karl‐Christian
name: Brussino, Luisa
name: Canonica, G. Walter
name: Cardona, Victoria
name: Carreiro‐Martins, Pedro
name: Casale, Tomas
name: Cecchi, Lorenzo
name: Chivato, Tomás
name: Chu, Derek K.
name: Cingi, Cemal
name: Costa, Elísio M.
name: Cruz, Alvaro A.
name: De Feo, Giulia
name: Devillier, Philippe
name: Fokkens, Wytske J.
name: Gaga, Mina
name: Gemicioğlu, Bilun
name: Haahtela, Tari
name: Ivancevich, Juan Carlos
name: Ispayeva, Zhanat
name: Jutel, Marek
name: Kuna, Piotr
name: Kaidashev, Igor
name: Kraxner, Helga
name: Larenas‐Linnemann, Désirée E.
name: Laune, Daniel
name: Lipworth, Brian
name: Louis, Renaud
name: Makris, Michael
name: Monti, Riccardo
name: Morais‐Almeida, Mario
name: Mösges, Ralph
name: Mullol, Joaquim
name: Odemyr, Mikaëla
name: Okamoto, Yoshitaka
name: Papadopoulos, Nikolaos G.
name: Patella, Vincenzo
name: Pham‐Thi, Nhân
name: Regateiro, Frederico S.
name: Reitsma, Sietze
name: Rouadi, Philip W.
name: Samolinski, Boleslaw
name: Sova, Milan
name: Todo‐Bom, Ana
name: Taborda‐Barata, Luis
name: Tomazic, Peter Valentin
name: Toppila‐Salmi, Sanna
name: Sastre, Joaquin
name: Tsiligianni, Ioanna
name: Valiulis, Arunas
name: Vandenplas, Olivier
name: Wallace, Dana
name: Waserman, Susan
name: Yorgancioglu, Arzu
name: Zidarn, Mihaela
name: Zuberbier, Torsten
name: Fonseca, João A.
name: Bousquet, Jean
Publisher: name: Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin
Year: 2022
Subjects: subject: allergic rhinitis
subject: Co-medication
subject: MASK-air
subject: visual analogue scale
classificationCode: 610
subject: Medizin und Gesundheit

description: Background Co-medication is common among patients with allergic rhinitis (AR), but its dimension and patterns are unknown. This is particularly relevant since AR is understood differently across European countries, as reflected by rhinitis-related search patterns in Google Trends. This study aims to assess AR co-medication and its regional patterns in Europe, using real-world data. Methods We analysed 2015–2020 MASK-air® European data. We compared days under no medication, monotherapy and co-medication using the visual analogue scale (VAS) levels for overall allergic symptoms (‘VAS Global Symptoms’) and impact of AR on work. We assessed the monthly use of different medication schemes, performing separate analyses by region (defined geographically or by Google Trends patterns). We estimated the average number of different drugs reported per patient within 1 year. Results We analysed 222,024 days (13,122 users), including 63,887 days (28.8%) under monotherapy and 38,315 (17.3%) under co-medication. The median ‘VAS Global Symptoms’ was 7 for no medication days, 14 for monotherapy and 21 for co-medication (p &lt; .001). Medication use peaked during the spring, with similar patterns across different European regions (defined geographically or by Google Trends). Oral H1-antihistamines were the most common medication in single and co-medication. Each patient reported using an annual average of 2.7 drugs, with 80% reporting two or more. Conclusions Allergic rhinitis medication patterns are similar across European regions. One third of treatment days involved co-medication. These findings suggest that patients treat themselves according to their symptoms (irrespective of how they understand AR) and that co-medication use is driven by symptom severity.