Implementation of guidelines for allergic rhinitis in specialist practices. A randomized pragmatic controlled trial.

Background: Guidelines for allergic rhinitis are more effective than free-treatment choice in the control of seasonal allergic rhinitis.

Objective: To validate the ARIA (Allergic Rhinitis and its Impact on Asthma) guidelines in the treatment of intermittent and persistent allergic rhinitis induced by pollens.

Design: A multicenter, open-label, parallel, pragmatic randomized study compared two therapeutic strategies during a 2-week treatment course. In the first strategy ('guidelines group'), 417 patients were treated according to ARIA with ebastine as oral antihistamine. In the second strategy ('free-choice treatment group'), investigators had a free choice for the treatment of 422 patients.

Main Outcome Measures: Quality of life measured using the Rhinoconjunctivitis Quality of Life Questionnaire (RQLQ), work productivity and daily symptom medication scores.

Results: 94.2% patients returned the baseline visit questionnaires and 88.6% returned the posttreatment period questionnaires. RQLQ scores were similar in the two groups at baseline. After treatment, there were improvements in the overall score and in all domains in both treatment groups. According to pragmatic methodology, the improvements show that the guidelines group (-1.70 +/- 1.20) is more effective than the free-choice treatment group (-1.52 +/- 1.22) with a gamma risk of 2%. Individual RQLQ scores, work productivity, and daily symptom scores were significantly improved in the guidelines group by comparison to the free-choice treatment group.

Conclusion: A treatment based on ARIA guidelines offers patients a significant improvement in comparison to the use of a nonstandardized treatment regimen.