Objective: To describe parents' experience with their child's allergic rhinitis (AR) to inform management by the primary care provider (PCP).
Study design: Two hundred parents with a child 7 to 15 years old with AR symptoms within the past 12 months completed a paper survey.
Results: The child's AR was identified as a significant problem in spring (89.3%), fall (63.4%), summer (50.3%), and winter (21.4%); 51.3% had persistent disease. AR symptoms most commonly interfered with the child's outdoor activities and sleeping, and frequently bothered the parent and other family members. Most parents (88.3%) wanted to know what their child was allergic to and had many concerns about treatment options. A total of 62.9% had sought AR care from the PCP in the past 12 months.
Conclusions: Many families experience significant morbidity from their child's AR and turn to their PCP for help. We identified opportunities for the PCP to reduce AR morbidity.
Keywords: allergic rhinitis; practice-based research network.
© The Author(s) 2014.