Worldwide prevalence of rhinitis in adults : a review of definitions and temporal evolution

Abstract

<div lang="en" class="abs"><p class="abs_header">Abstract</p><p><em>Introduction:</em> Although rhinitis is among the most common diseases worldwide, rhinitis prevalence in the general adult population is unclear and definitions differ widely.</p><p><em>Objective:</em> To summarize the literature on rhinitis prevalence in the general adult population and to assess: (1) the prevalence according to different rhinitis definitions overall and in different regions of the world, and (2) the evolution of rhinitis prevalence over time.</p><p><em>Methods:</em> We conducted an extensive literature review of publications including rhinitis prevalence using Pubmed and Scopus databases up to October 2020. We classified the definitions into three categories: unspecified rhinitis, allergic rhinitis (AR), and nonallergic rhinitis (NAR).</p><p><em>Results:</em> Among 5878 articles screened, 184 articles were included, presenting 156 different definitions of rhinitis. Rhinitis prevalence ranged from 1% to 63%. The overall median prevalences of unspecified rhinitis, AR and NAR were 29.4%, 18.1% and 12.0%, and they varied according to the geographical location. Rhinitis prevalence tended to increase over time.</p><p><em>Conclusions:</em> This review highlights the great heterogeneity of the definitions. The majority of studies had focused on AR, while only a few epidemiological data exist on NAR. We found geographical variability in rhinitis prevalence. Most of studies reported an increase of rhinitis prevalence over the last decades.</p></div>