The Prevalence of Rhinosinusitis Disease among Asthma Patients in Saudi Arabia

Background: Asthma and rhinosinusitis share the same pathophysiological mechanism and often occur together. The root cause of chronic rhinosinusitis is still a challenge to cure, but its clinical symptoms can be improved by symptomatic treatment, also considered asthma symptom re-lievers. Objective: The primary objective of this study was to measure the prevalence of asthma with rhi-nosinusitis among adult patients in Saudi Arabia, as there have been limited studies that assessed this objective. Methods: This study is a retrospective cross-sectional study. The data was collected from a selected hospital from 2016 to 2019. The inclusion criteria were patients with a confirmed diagnosis of asthma and rhinosinusitis aged 18 years and older. Results: The prevalence of rhinosinusitis among asthma patients was 0.30% in a total of 1,688 asthmatic patients, and 1683 patients had asthma without rhinosinusitis (99.7%). Females accounted for 67.7% of the patients, while males accounted for 32.3%. Most of the asthma patients (56%) were 60 or older, and 44% were between 18 and 59 years old. Asthma patients with a past medical history of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) accounted for 2.3% of the patients. Moreover, 1.9% of the asthma patients had bronchiectasis. The majority of the asthma patients (79%) had an unknown allergic status, while 21% had allergies. The smoking status variable re-vealed that 3.1% of the asthma patients were smokers. Conclusion: The prevalence of rhinosinusitis among asthma patients was considered low.