Association between diabetes mellitus and chronic rhinosinusitis with nasal polyps: A population‐based cross‐sectional study

Objective To investigate the association between physician‐diagnosed diabetes mellitus (DM) and chronic rhinosinusitis (CRS) phenotypes in a national population‐based study. Study Design Retrospective cross‐sectional study. Setting Population‐based survey data were collected by the Korean National Health and Nutrition Survey between January 2008 and December 2012. Participants and Methods A total of 34 670 participants aged over 19 years were enrolled in the Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys from 2008 to 2012. The relationship of CRS prevalence, with and without nasal polyps, with physician‐diagnosed DM and non‐DM were assessed. Differences in sinonasal symptoms between patients with and without DM were analysed in this cross‐sectional study. Results A significant association was observed between DM and CRS with nasal polyps after adjustment for multiple variables. No substantial association was observed between DM and CRS without nasal polyps. Among patients with CRS, olfactory dysfunction for >3 months was significantly more frequent in the DM group than in the non‐DM group. Conclusion We demonstrated significant associations between DM and CRS with nasal polyps and olfactory dysfunction among patients with CRS in a large national clinical cohort study. The direct mechanism of the association between DM and CRS with nasal polyps should be further investigated to clarify the pathogenesis of CRS with nasal polyps.