The consequences of allergic disease

Severely-affected allergy sufferers experience many symptoms despite treatment with symptom-relieving medication. This has substantial socio-economic consequences.

Allergy is a widespread disease, which is becoming increasingly common worldwide and has a tendency to get worse with time. Currently, more than 20% of the world’s population suffer from respiratory allergies.

Socio-economic impact
For most people with respiratory allergies, their condition significantly reduces their quality of life, affecting both work and leisure time. They can relieve their symptoms by trying to avoid allergen exposure, but restricting their lives in this way can have psychological and social consequences as well as a socio-economic impact.

According to a European survey of diagnosed allergy sufferers, around 80% of the respondents said that their condition considerably affects their daily activities.

The increasing prevalence of allergy also has major economic consequences for society through reduced working capacity and more sick leave.

Unmet medical need
A small proportion of people with respiratory allergy still have symptoms despite treatment with symptom-relieving medication. As a result, their quality of life is affected along with their effectiveness at work and elsewhere.

The burden can be relieved
There are several ways to ease the burden of respiratory allergies:

• A significant number of people with allergy are undiagnosed, and the condition is often trivialised both by patients and doctors
• Although effective treatments exist, the disease is often not correctly managed
• An integrated management approach for patients with allergic rhinitis and asthma may both reduce medical treatment costs and improve symptom control