EPIDEMIOLOGY OF RHINITIS IN GREECE
Christos Kassionis MD
ENT Dept., Kefallonia General Hospital – Island of Kefallonia, Greece.
Desprite of its wide spread appearance there are no generally accepted criteria for the
diagnosis and classification of rhinitis. This lack of definitions is one reason for the
poverty in data that are available concerning epidemiology of rhinitis. A possible
explanation lies in the fact that it is difficult to distinguish rhinitis from normal
subjects, since the characteristic symptoms of rhinitis may occur occasionally in all
individuals. In this presentation we handle a classification according to the suspected
etiology, realizing there is certainly an overlap of pathology.
Allergic Rhinitis
This type of rhinitis is best known concerning epidemiological data, because of the
availability of allergic tests. The prevalence of atopic rhinitis varies from 2 – 20%
depending from age, gender, race, allergen, region and seems to be increasing.
Infectious Rhinitis
Infectious rhinitis is most often due to viruses rather than bacteria. The average
incidence of the common cold in preschool children is 5 to 9 a year. This incidence of
illness decreases with age and averages 2 – 4 per year by adulthood.
Non – Allergic Non – Infectious Perennial Rhinitis (NANIPER)
It is impossible to give exact numbers but in a general population, prevalence is
reported to be 5 – 10%, suggesting the same general population prevalence as allergic
rhinitis. In a specialist population the percentage accounts for 30 – 70% of patients
with chronic perennial rhinitis.
Special attention can be made towards Non – Allergic Rhinitis with Eosinophilia. The
prevalence of NARES seems to be half that of NANIPER.
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