Subcutaneous Allergen Immunotherapy in Children: Real Life Compliance and Effect of COVID-19 Pandemic on Compliance.
Int Arch Allergy Immunol
; 182(7): 631-636, 2021.
Article
in English
| MEDLINE | ID: covidwho-1197289
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND:
Subcutaneous allergen immunotherapy (SCIT) is an effective treatment for allergic rhinitis, asthma, and venom allergy. Compliance is essential for SCIT to obtain maximal benefit as it is a long-term treatment.OBJECTIVES:
This study aimed to determine the level of real-life SCIT compliance in pediatric patients and the associated factors. Additional aims were to determine how SCIT compliance was affected by the COVID-19 pandemic and why some patients dropped out SCIT.METHOD:
Pediatric patients diagnosed with allergic rhinitis, allergic asthma, or venom allergy that received SCIT between September 2012 and July 2020 were analyzed.RESULTS:
The study included 201 children (66.7% male) with a median (interquartile range) age of 12.8 years (9.4-15.2) at the time of the first SCIT injection. The overall compliance rate before COVID-19 pandemic was 86.1%. Short SCIT follow-up time and venom anaphylaxis were found to be risk factors for drop out. The leading causes of drop outs were moving to another city/country (32.1%), symptom improvement (17.8%), treatment ineffectiveness (14.2%), and adverse reactions (14.2%). Among the 108 patients that were still receiving SCIT during the COVID-19 pandemic, 31 (28.7%) dropped out the therapy. The most frequent reasons for drop-out were fear of being infected with COVID-19 (35.4%) and thinking that the AIT practise stopped due to COVID-19 pandemic (29%). Male gender and older age were found to be the independent risk factors for drop-out of SCIT.CONCLUSIONS:
Real life compliance in children was found 13.9% and it was higher than adults. Nearly one-third of children dropped out during the CO-VID-19 pandemic. Male gender and older age are associated with SCIT drop-out during the COVID-19 pandemic.Keywords
Full text:
Available
Collection:
International databases
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
Desensitization, Immunologic
/
Patient Compliance
/
COVID-19
/
Hypersensitivity, Immediate
Type of study:
Cohort study
/
Experimental Studies
/
Prognostic study
/
Qualitative research
Topics:
Long Covid
Limits:
Adolescent
/
Child
/
Female
/
Humans
/
Male
Country/Region as subject:
Asia
Language:
English
Journal:
Int Arch Allergy Immunol
Journal subject:
Allergy and Immunology
Year:
2021
Document Type:
Article
Affiliation country:
000514587
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