How an online survey on the treatment of allergic rhinitis and its impact on asthma (ARIA) detected specialty-specific knowledge-gaps

BACKGROUND: To enhance the dissemination of the ARIA document (Allergic rhinitis (AR) and its impact on asthma) in Mexico, a Working Group composed of 35 specialists of 8 professional medical societies developed a transculturized ARIA México 2014 guideline. The ARIA guidelines use the GRADE system, which builds recommendations and suggestions around clinical questions (CQ). METHODS: As part of the dissemination strategy and to detect the physicians’ view and knowledge-gaps concerning the treatment of AR an online survey was sent out to members of participating societies containing the CQ of ARIA México. Replies were analyzed per specialty against the ARIA México 2014 experts’ recommendations/suggestions; differences between specialties were analyzed with Pearson’s Chi-squares. RESULTS: 807 surveys were returned, 657 completed (81%). We analyze replies from 158 alergists, 188 ENTs, 64 pulmonologists, 220 pediatricians and 177 GPs/family doctors. More than half of the surveyed physicians of all specialties would give an allergen reduced diet to pregnant/lactating women and avoid pets at home, which is against ARIA experts’ suggestions. ARIA experts suggest intranasal antihistamines can be part of the AR treatment: 46-63% of the ENTs, pulmonologists and pediatricians disagree; and experts prefer oral H1-antihistamines over leukotriene receptor antagonists (LTRA) for the treatment of AR: 52-36% of the pulmonologists, pediatricians and GPs prefer LTRAs. Concerning glucocorticosteroids (GCS): GPs are more reluctant to use intranasal GCS (p < 0.001) and 47% prefers oral H1-antihistamines. As for the treatment of recalcitrant AR ARIA experts suggest the use of oral, but not intramuscular, GCS: a quarter of pulmonologists, pediatricians and GPs considers they should not be used. Contrarily, 40% of ENTs favors intramuscular GCS. In patients with AR and comorbid asthma several physicians of all specialties –except pulmonologists- erroneously considers antihistamines, intranasal GCS and LTRAs useful for the treatment of asthma, while first-line recommended asthma treatment is inhaled GCS. CONCLUSION: On certain issues in the treatment of AR the physicians’ opinion diverges from the recommendations/suggestions of ARIA experts. Moreover, physicians’ opinions depend on their specialty. As such, an online survey can help to detect knowledge-gaps and guide the development of more focused and specialty-specific postgraduate learning tools. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s40413-015-0064-1) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.