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Review
. 2022 Mar;12(3):e12130.
doi: 10.1002/clt2.12130.

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

Marine Savouré  1   2 , Jean Bousquet  1   3   4   5   6 , Jouni J K Jaakkola  7   8   9 , Maritta S Jaakkola  7   8   9 , Bénédicte Jacquemin  10 , Rachel Nadif  1
Affiliations
Review

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

Marine Savouré et al. Clin Transl Allergy. 2022 Mar.

Abstract

Introduction: Although rhinitis is among the most common diseases worldwide, rhinitis prevalence in the general adult population is unclear and definitions differ widely.

Objective: 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.

Methods: 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).

Results: 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.

Conclusions: 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.

Keywords: Allergische Rhinitis; Epidemiologie; Nicht-allergische Rhinitis; Prevalenz; Rhinitis; allergic rhinitis; epidemiology; epidemiología; non-allergic rhinitis; prevalence; prevalencia; prévalence; rhinite; rhinite allergique; rhinite non-allergique; rhinitis; rinitis; rinitis alérgica; rinitis no alérgica; épidémiologie.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this study.

Figures

FIGURE 1
FIGURE 1
Flow diagram showing selection of articles reviewed
FIGURE 2
FIGURE 2
Rhinitis prevalences in different regions of the world. (A) Unspecified rhinitis; (B) allergic rhinitis; (C) non‐allergic rhinitis. The data for continents are presented as follows: median (minimum reported–maximum reported), n = number of reported prevalences. Colored countries are those for which data are available. The darkest countries are those for which the median prevalence is the highest
FIGURE 3
FIGURE 3
Evolution of allergic rhinitis prevalence worldwide over time
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

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