COMPLIANCE WITH ALLERGEN IMMUNOTHERAPY

Immunotherapy has been used for the treatment of allergic rhinitis sin ce the turn of this century. The purpose of this study was to assess t he compliance with immunotherapy in a medical center. The charts of 31 5 patients aged 5 to 18 years, who were prescribed immunotherapy for t reatment of allergic rhinitis for at least 1 year before the study, we re selected by computer and reviewed. The first analysis consisted of using a log-linear analysis in order to investigate the relationship b etween source of payment (private or nonprivate), gender, and race. Al l main effects and interactions were entered into the model (P < . 01) . The second analysis consisted of using a log-linear analysis to inve stigate the relationship between the presence/absence of pollen, mold, mite, and animal IgE antibodies, and compliance (model, P < .05). Two hundred fifty-eight patients were private and 57 were nonprivate. Fif ty-nine percent (n = 152) of private patients and 46% (n = 26) of nonp rivate patients were compliant. Of the 315 patients with allergic rhin itis, 52 also had asthma and 34 had atopic dermatitis. Sixty-one perce nt of the asthmatic patients and 4 7% with atopic dermatitis were comp liant. Compliance was not increased by the number of allergens to whic h a patient was allergic. Males were slightly more compliant than fema les, caucasians were more often private patients and non-whites were m ore often nonprivate patients. Private patients were more compliant wi th immunotherapy than nonprivate patients.