Rhinitis in a community elderly population: relationships with age, atopy, and asthma

Background: Rhinitis is one of the most frequent medical conditions. However, there is sparse epidemiologic evidence for rhinitis in the elderly population.

Objective: To investigate the prevalence of rhinitis in elderly adults and its relations to asthma and other comorbidities.

Methods: A cross-sectional analysis was performed using the baseline dataset of the Korean Longitudinal Study on Health and Aging, a community-based elderly population cohort in Korea (≥65 years old). Structured questionnaires were used to define rhinitis, asthma, and comorbidity, and allergen skin prick tests were used to define atopy. Health-related quality of life was assessed by short-form 36 questionnaires.

Results: In total, 982 elderly adults (98.2%) were included in the present study. The prevalence of rhinitis was 25.6% and did not decrease until 90 years of age. The prevalence of atopy was 17.2% (18.8% in participants with rhinitis), and atopy did not show a significant association with rhinitis. In multivariate logistic regression analyses, relations between asthma and rhinitis were significant. Among comorbid conditions, none were significantly associated with rhinitis. In the short-form 36 questionnaire analyses, rhinitis was independently related to a decrease in the physical aspects of quality of life.

Conclusion: The present study found a high prevalence of nonallergic rhinitis in elderly participants, which was significantly related to asthma and quality of life.