Nursing counseling decreases symptomatology and relapses in pediatric patients with allergic rhinitis

Abstract

Background: Allergic rhinitis (AR) is considered to be a public health problem. Therefore, it is essential to test health education strategies such as nursing counseling (NC) aimed at population groups such as children with allergic rhinitis and their tutors. This study aimed to measure the health benefits of children with this disease for a year. Methods: It is a longitudinal, randomized, comparative study with a sample of 100 pediatric patients of both sexes, aged 6 to 12 years, with a diagnosis of allergic rhinitis, with counseling (study group) and without counseling (control group). In both groups, an informed consent letter signed by both tutors was applied, in addition to knowledge and assessment forms, the second included a scale of symptomatology and a Morisky-Green scale (adherence to treatment). Children in the study group received an intervention based on personalized education, teaching material, support from a multidisciplinary group if necessary (physician, dermatologist, and psychologist). The control group received usual care. In both groups, telephone follow-up was used, which allowed identification of the number of relapses in one year. Results: The Wilcoxon rank-sum test (Mann-Whitney) was used to compare the results, so the presence of relapses in the control group was statistically significant compared to the study group. Conclusions: It was found that the pediatric population that receives NC has improved control of symptomatology and decrease of relapses per year.