A cross sectional analysis of a case-control study about quality of life in CRS in the UK; a comparison between CRS subtypes

The Sinonasal Outcome Test (SNOT-22) has been used as a patient reported outcome measure to grade symptom severity before and after treatment for chronic rhinosinusitis (CRS). This analysis uses data from the CRS Epidemiology Study (CRES). The overarching aim of CRES was to determine factors that influence the onset and severity of CRS. A study-specific questionnaire including SNOT-22 was distributed to patients with CRS attending ENT clinics across 30 centres in the United Kingdom. The aim of this analysis was to compare SNOT-22 scores between those with different types of CRS to determine any differences present in the total score or the subdomains and to assess whether any differences varied according to gender. There were a total of 1249 CRS participants in the following subgroups: CRS without nasal polyps (CRSsNPs) (n=553), CRS with nasal polyps (CRSwNPs) (n=651), allergic fungal rhinosinusitis (AFRS) (n=45). Since there were differing gender ratios in each subgroup, males and females were analysed separately. The mean and standard deviation for SNOT-22 was: males CRSsNP 41.1 (21.0), CRSwNP 41.7 (20.5); females CRSsNP 49.6 (19.7), CRSwNP 49.5 (22.9). In the nasal domain, those with CRSwNP scored more highly than those with CRSsNP; for males 18.1 (8.1) vs. 15.9 (7.9); for females 19.6 (8.0) vs 16.7 (7.5). Patients with CRSwNPs report higher symptom scores in the nasal domain of SNOT-22 than those with CRSsNPs with women in both subgroups reporting higher total scores than men.