Clinical efficacy in patients with delayed SCIT compared to on-schedule SCIT
For subjective symptoms, the mean ± SD value of VAS was 2.67 ± 2.10 at V0 and 2.271 ± 1.53 at V1 for patients with delayed SCIT, whereas patients with scheduled SCIT had a higher score of 3.08 ± 2.13 at V0 (P = 0.0191) and 2.30 ± 1.82 at V1 (Figure 2, A ). The number of patients with delayed SCIT who did not feel any symptoms was 14.79%, and patients who reported moderate symptoms was 21.01%. This was more than 4.27% (P = 0.0001), and less than 30.33% (P = 0.0136) than in patients with scheduled SCIT at V0. Severe symptoms were reported in 0.47% of patients with delayed SCIT, which was less than 3.84% than in patients with scheduled SCIT (P = 0.0424) (Table 2 ).
With a similar tendency as VAS, the mean ± SD value of dSS was 0.63 ± 0.50 in patients with delayed SCIT, which was also lower than the scheduled SCIT group at V0 (0.76 ± 0.60, P = 0.0208). However, the score of 0.60 ± 0.43 in patients with delayed SCIT was significantly higher than the score of 0.51 ± 0.47 for scheduled SCIT patients at V1 (P = 0.0375) (Figure 2, B ). The conjunctival symptom of watery eyes at V0, and nasal symptoms of itchy nose and of sneezing at V1, showed a significant difference between the delayed and scheduled SCIT groups (P = 0.0267, P = 0.0001, and P = 0.0267 respectively) (Table 2 ).
For rescue medication, medication usage among patients was significantly increased in the delayed SCIT group compared to the scheduled SCIT group (P = 0.0478) at V0 (Figure 2, C ), particularly the usage of intranasal corticosteroids (INS) (P = 0.0177). For allergic control, intake of INS with or without H1-antihistamine was increased up to nearly 50% at V0 in the delayed SCIT group. However, no major difference of dMS was observed between the groups at V1 (Table 2 ). Moreover, the score of CSMS, which balances both symptoms and the need for anti-allergic medication in an equally weighted manner, shows no statistical difference in patients with delayed or scheduled SCIT at V0 and V1 (Figure 2, D ).
For QoL assessment, the mean value with upper to lower 95% CI of QoL grade was 20.89 (18.73 to 23.05) and 26.97 (24.17 to 29.76) in patients with delayed and scheduled SCIT at V0, respectively (P < 0.0001), showing less life damage among delayed SCIT patients. The remarkable difference in the grade of 20.71 (18.15 to 23.27) in patients with delayed SCIT in comparison to 17.85 (13.96 to 21.74) in patients with scheduled SCIT was seen at V1 (P = 0.0334) (Figure 2, E ). The number of patients with activity problems (P < 0.0001) and generalized symptoms (P = 0.0093) during the past week at V0 were found to be prominently reduced in the delayed SCIT group, while at V1, sleep problems, generalized symptoms, practical problems, nasal symptoms, ocular symptoms, and emotional problems were prominently increased in comparison with the scheduled SCIT group (all P < 0.05) (Table 2 ).