Patient satisfaction and allergen immunotherapy

Although health-related quality of life and patient satisfaction are shifti ng doctors' attention to the patient, the scant number of publications on q uality of life questionnaires and allergen immunotherapy contrasts with the quickly growing number of those dealing with this topic and pharmacotherap y We delivered an original, self-administered patient satisfaction question naire to 95 patients (age = 17.7 +/- 17.9 years) suffering from allergic rh inoconjunctivitis (45%) and/or asthma (55%), who had been receiving allerge n immunotherapy for more than I year (22.2 +/- 10.5 months). The anonymous, voluntary questionnaire was filled in at home; although only 32% were retu rned, we found no significant differences relating to age, sex, asthma, all ergen sensitization or allergen immunotherapy regimen between the source sa mple and those who replied. Patient expectations, which were scored on a sc ale of 1 to 10 points, were rather poor, in sharp contrast with patient per ception score after treatment (5.4 +/- 1.8 vs. 8.0 +/- 2.0, p <0.0001). Per ception scores did not differ between patients receiving seasonal or perenn ial allergen immunotherapy, nor did they depend on the duration of treatmen t. In addition, patient age, sex, diagnosis or sensitization did not appear to influence perceptions. In conclusion, our data suggest that when a volu ntary, anonymous questionnaire is used, patients express a poor opinion of allergen immunotherapy, in contrast with high satisfaction after treatment provided that allergen immunotherapy lasts long enough.