Impact on sleep

This study investigated the impact of perennial allergy on sleep, daily activities, and productivity among 511 adult patients.

Nightly awakenings are very burdensome in patients with respiratory allergy. Almost half of patients (47.1%) reported having sleep issues related to their allergies. On average, allergic patients experienced 3.8 awakenings per night, with 92% taking more than 15 minutes to fall back to sleep.

Poor quality of sleep also led to difficulty in waking in the morning for the majority of patients (69.2%).

Negative impact on work and activities is also largely prevalent among people suffering from allergy. When asked about the average amount of work time missed (absenteeism), patients reported this to be 12% over the past 7 days. Over the same period, impairment while working due to ill-health (presenteeism) was 46.9%. Combining absenteeism and presenteeism showed an overall work impairment due to ill-health of 53.3%. Outside work, 47.1% reported activity impairment due to ill-health.

Improved quality of sleep was reported in the subpopulation receiving allergy immunotherapy (AIT) (N=105) at the time of the survey, compared to patients receiving other prescription medicines (N=110). More than 80% of patients receiving AIT reported better sleep quality, compared to only 65% in the group receiving other types of prescription medication.

The study was conducted among adults aged 18 and older, with self-reported or physician-diagnosed perennial AR (the most common causes of allergy were pollen 67.1%, house dust mites 65.2%, mould 51.6%, animals/fur 47.6% and indoor plants 17.0%). Patients were recruited in Denmark, France, Germany, and Sweden and the allergy sufferers were identified using online panels, closely matching national population characteristics for each country. In total, 511 perennial allergy sufferers were included in the survey. The impact of their allergies on sleep, work, productivity and activity (using the Work, Productivity and Activity Index, WPAI questionnaire) was analysed. In addition, patients were asked to assess their disease severity (as per ‘Allergic Rhinitis and its Impact on Asthma’ (ARIA) criteria), whether they were diagnosed with allergic asthma, rate the impact on their sleep and record their treatment management. All sleep and treatment questions were based on a recall period of the past month – long enough to account for weekly variations but short enough to minimise recall bias.

To read more about the study, please use the link below.

Romano et al., “The impact of perennial allergic rhinitis with/without allergic asthma on sleep, work and activity level”, Allergy Asthma Clin Immunol (2019)15:81 https://doi.org/10.1186/s13223-019-0391-9