ACMJ
Anatolian Current Medical Journal

Anatolian Current Medical Journal (ACMJ) is an unbiased, peer-reviewed, and open access international medical journal. The Journal publishes interesting clinical and experimental research conducted in all fields of medicine, interesting case reports, and clinical images, invited reviews, editorials, letters, comments, and related knowledge.

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Original Article
Evaluation of children with allergic and non-allergic rhinitis and the effect of obesity/overweight in patients with allergic rhinitis
Abstract
Aims: Allergic rhinitis (AR) and obesity are two of the most prevalent chronic health diseases in children. This report aims to investigate to types of allergic and non-allergic rhinitis (NAR) and the association between the frequency and severity of rhinitis symptoms in AR patients with and without overweight/obesity.
Methods: Patients aged 5-18 years with rhinitis symptoms who were referred to Sincan Training and Research Hospital pediatric immunology and allergy outpatient clinic were retrospectively evaluated. Demographic, clinical and laboratory characteristics of patients were recorded.
Results: The study included 385 children with a median age of 11 years (IQR8-14) (53.5% males). 31 (8.1%) of patients had atopic dermatitis and 22 (5.7 %) of patients had asthma. 283 (73.5%) patients were in the AR group. Total IgE level and eosinophil count were found significantly higher in AR group [256 (113-995) vs. 280 (160-480)] than NAR group [64 (25.5-210) vs. 170 (90-310)] (p=0.002 vs. p=<0.001). 61.3 % of patients were sensitized to grass pollen, 21% to cat, and 9.9% to house dust-mite. The number of patients with moderate-to-severe rhinitis were higher in AR group (65%) compared to NAR group (35%) (p=0.005). Nasal congestion (77.7%), sneezing (75.3%), rhinorrhea (42.6%) were more common symptoms. Postnasal drip, snoring-mouth breathing and adenoid hypertrophy were more common in the NAR group compared to AR group (p=0.011, p=0.013 and p<0.001, respectively). Among patients with AR, there were 79 (28%) patients with overweight/obesity. The rate of moderate-to-severe rhinitis was 68.4% in obese/overweight group and 63.7% in the non-obese/overweight group.
Conclusion: Our study found that moderate-to-severe rhinitis was higher in the AR group than the NAR group. No difference was found between the frequency and severity of rhinitis symptoms and aeroallergen sensitivities in patients with and without obesity/overweight.

Keywords : Rhinitis, allergic, severity, children, obesity

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Article available in :
Volume 7, Issue 2, 2025
Page : 177-183
https://doi.org/10.38053/acmj.1625706
Article Information
Received : 23 Oca 2025
Accepted : 25 Şub 2025
Published : 21 Mar 2025
Corresponding Author :

Hilal Ünsal: Department of Pediatric Immunology and Allergy, Sincan Training and Research Hospital, Ankara, Turkiye

[email protected]
Citation : Ünsal H, Akalın Ertürk B. Evaluation of children with allergic and non-allergic rhinitis and the effect of obesity/overweight in patients with allergic rhinitis. Anatolian Curr Med J. 2025;7(2):177-183.

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