The relationship between sublingual immunotherapy for allergic rhinitis and the risk of symptoms in patients with COVID-19 infection

ABSTRACT To evaluated the risk ratio of Allergic rhinitis (AR) people on the symptoms after COVID-19 infection, and explored the relationship between AR and the symptoms after COVID-19 infection. An observational study was performed of people from outpatient department of the Hospital of Chengdu University of Chinese Medicine. Participants completed an electronic survey and between January 10 to January 20, 2023. We divided the participants into three groups according to the disease information of the population: non-AR people group (AR-N), AR patients with sublingual immunotherapy group (AR-S), and AR patients with conventional therapy group (AR-C). A total of 1116 participants were included in the study, with an average age of 21.76 ± 8.713, women accounted for 62.5%, men accounted for 37.5%. The final results showed that the risk of most symptoms after AR-C infection was not different from that of AR-N, except for sore throat, dry and itchy, chest distress, shortness of breath, and dyspnea. AR-S could effectively reduce the risk of post-infection symptoms including: dry and itchy (OR = 0.484, 95%CI: 0.335–0.698), pain (OR = 0.513, 95%CI:0.362–0.728), cough (OR = 0.506, 95% CI:0.341–0.749), expectoration (OR = 0.349, 95% CI:0.244–0.498), fever (OR = 0.569, 95% CI:0.379–0.853), head and body pain (OR = 0.456, 95% CI:0.323–0.644), fatigue (OR = 0.256, 95% CI:0.177–0.371), cold limbs (OR = 0.325, 95%CI:0.227–0.465), diarrhea (OR = 0.246, 95% CI:0.132–0.457), constipation (OR = 0.227, 95%CI:0.100–0.513), hyposmia (OR = 0.456, 95% CI:0.296–0.701), hypogeusia (OR = 0.397, 95% CI:0.259–0.607), chest distress (OR = 0.534, 95% CI:0.343–0.829), shortness of breath (OR = 0.622, 95% CI:0.398–0.974), palpitations (OR = 0.355, 95% CI:0.206–0.613). The risk of symptoms after COVID-19 infection in allergic rhinitis population receiving sublingual immunotherapy is lower.