Pilot study of mobile phone technology in allergic rhinitis in European countries: the MASK-rhinitis study

Volume 72, Issue 6 June 2017 

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     Previous article in issue: Overview of systematic reviews in allergy epidemiology
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• Abstract
  Background

  The use of Apps running on smartphones and tablets profoundly affects medicine. The MASK-rhinitis (MACVIA-ARIA Sentinel NetworK for allergic rhinitis) App (Allergy Diary) assesses allergic rhinitis symptoms, disease control and impact on patients’ lives. It is freely available in 20 countries (iOS and Android platforms).
  Aims

  
  

  To assess in a pilot study whether (i) Allergy Diary users were able to properly provide baseline characteristics (ii) simple phenotypic characteristics based upon data captured by the Allergy Diarycould be identified and (iii) information gathered by this study could suggest novel research questions.
  Methods

  The Allergy Diary users were classified into six groups according to the baseline data that they entered into the App: (i) asymptomatic; (ii) nasal symptoms excluding rhinorrhea; (iii) rhinorrhea; (iv) rhinorrhea plus 1–2 nasal/ocular symptoms; (v) rhinorrhea plus ≥3 nasal/ocular symptoms; and (vi) rhinorrhea plus all nasal/ocular symptoms.