The impact of asthma and aspirin sensitivity on quality of life of patients with nasal polyposis

Background: Nasal polyposis is not a life-threatening disease but may have a great impact on patient's quality of life. Objective: To investigate the impact of nasal polyps on quality of life compared with the Spanish general population using the SF-36 questionnaire; and to evaluate the impact of asthma and aspirin sensitivity on quality of life in patients with nasal polyposis. Methods: We included 130 patients with nasal polyposis and evaluated nasal symptom, CT scan, polyp size, and quality of life. Results: In comparison with the Spanish general population, patients with nasal polyposis had worse scores on all SF-36 domains except for physical functioning. Asthmatic patients with nasal polyposis had worse quality of life than nonasthmatic patients on role physical, body pain, and vitality (p < 0.05). The authors found no significant differences on quality of life, nasal symptoms, polyp size, and CT scan scores between patients with aspirin-tolerant and aspirin-sensitive asthma. Conclusion: These results suggest that nasal polyposis has a considerable impact on quality of life. Moreover, asthma but not aspirin sensitivity has an additional negative impact on the quality of life of patients with nasal polyposis.