The Real Life Results Before COVİD-19 Pandemic (2012
September-2020 March)
There were 201 children who received SCIT injections between 2012
September, 2020 March. According to the demographic data there was a
predominance of male gender (134, 66.7%). The median AIT start age was
12.8 (9.4-15.2) years and the median treatment duration was 40.7
(20.4-49.9) months. Of the patients, 47.8% had a family history of
atopy. The demographic characteristics of the study participants are
summarized in Table I.
The number of the patients treated with immunotherapy for allergic
rhinitis, asthma and venom allergy were 154 (76,6%), 10 (5%) and 37
(18,4%), respectively. Regarding the immunotherapy composition, pollen
immunotherapy was predominant (78.1%), followed by venom (18.4%) and
house dust mite (3.5%). Ninety three patients (46,2%) completed the
treatment and 108 patients continued to receive AIT during the course of
the study. The overall compliance rate was 86.1%. Among the compliant
groups, all patients had excellent compliance in first and second year
of therapy. After two years of therapy, 93.6% of patients had excellent
compliance and 4,6% and 1,5% had good and fair compliance,
respectively. (Table III) Twenty eight patients(13.9%) stopped AIT
before recommended time. Two patients dropped out in year 1 (0,99%), 10
in year 2 (5,8%), and 16 (10,8%), after 2 years of therapy. Cumulative
proportions of patients who continue allergen immunotherapy over time
was analyzed using Kaplan-Meier curves. (Figure I)
In the drop-out group AIT follow up time was significiantly low
(p<0.001) whereas venom allergy and asthma were significiantly
higher compared to compliant group (p<0.001). (Table I) Among
the drop-out patients, moving to another city/country (32,1%) was the
most frequent reason for drop-out. The other reasons included
improvement of symptoms(17,8%), ineffectiveness of the therapy
(14,2%), adverse reaction (14,2%), long distance to hospital (6,8%),
frequency of injections (10,7%) and inability to access immunotherapy
agent (3,5%). (Table II)