Allergy 2022

Consistent trajectories of rhinitis control and treatment in 16,177 weeks: The MASK-air® longitudinal study.

Sousa-Pinto B, Schünemann HJ, Sá-Sousa A, Vieira RJ, Amaral R, Antó JM, Klimek L, Czarlewski W, Mullol J, Pfaar O, Bedbrook A, Brussino L, Kvedariene V, Larenas-Linnemann DE, Okamoto Y, Ventura MT, Agache I, Ansotegui IJ, Bergmann KC, Bosnic-Anticevich S, Canonica GW, Cardona V, Carreiro-Martins P, Casale T, Cecchi L, Chivato T, Chu DK, Cingi C, Costa EM, Cruz AA, Del Giacco S, Devillier P, Eklund P, Fokkens WJ, Gemicioglu B, Haahtela T, Ivancevich JC, Ispayeva Z, Jutel M, Kuna P, Kaidashev I, Khaitov M, Kraxner H, Laune D, Lipworth B, Louis R, Makris M, Monti R, Morais-Almeida M, Mosges R, Niedoszytko M, Papadopoulos NG, Patella V, Pham-Thi N, Regateiro FS, Reitsma S, Rouadi PW, Samolinski B, Sheikh A, Sova M, Todo-Bom A, Taborda-Barata L, Toppila-Salmi S, Sastre J, Tsiligianni I, Valiulis A, Vandenplas O, Wallace D, Waserman S, Yorgancioglu A, Zidarn M, Zuberbier T, Fonseca JA, Bousquet J
03.11.2022
Data from mHealth apps can provide valuable information on rhinitis control and treatment patterns. However, in MASK-air®, these data have only been analyzed cross-sectionally, without considering changes of symptoms over time. We analyzed data from MASK-air® longitudinally, clustering weeks according to reported rhinitis symptoms.We analyzed MASK-air® data, assessing weeks when patients answered a rhinitis daily questionnaire on all seven days. We firstly used k-means clustering algorithms for longitudinal data to define clusters of weeks according to the trajectories of reported daily rhinitis symptoms. Clustering was applied separately for weeks when medication was reported or not. We compared obtained clusters on symptoms and rhinitis medication patterns. We then used latent class mixture model to assess robustness of results.We analyzed 113,239 days (16,177 complete weeks) from 2,590 patients (mean age±SD=39.1±13.7 years). The first clustering algorithm identified ten clusters among weeks with medication use: seven with low variability in rhinitis control during the week, and three with highly-variable control. Clusters with poorly-controlled rhinitis displayed higher frequency of rhinitis co-medication, more frequent change of medication schemes, and more pronounced seasonal patterns. Six clusters were identified in weeks when no rhinitis medication was used, displaying similar control patterns. The second clustering method provided similar results. Moreover, patients displayed consistent levels of rhinitis control, reporting several weeks with similar levels of control.We identified 16 patterns of weekly rhinitis control. Co-medication and medication change schemes were common in uncontrolled weeks, reinforcing the hypothesis that patients treat themselves according to their symptoms.This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.