Visual analogue scale for sino-nasal symptoms severity correlates with sino-nasal outcome test 22: paving the way for a simple outcome tool of CRS burden

Background: A visual analogue scale (VAS) is a psychometric instrument widely used in the Rhinology field to subjectively quantify patient's symptoms severity. In allergic rhinitis, VAS has been found to correlate well with the allergic rhinitis and its impact on asthma severity classification, as well as with rhinoconjunctivitis quality of life questionnaire. In chronic rhinosinusitis (CRS), total VAS score are often used to classify disease burden into mild, moderate, and severe, with few studies correlating VAS scores with more complex and validated instruments assessing disease-specific burden like Sino-Nasal Outcome Test (SNOT)-22.

Methods: We correlated VAS scores for total and individual sino-nasal symptom with SNOT-22 scores in a randomly selected group of 180 CRS patients. Pearson's rho was selected as a correlation coefficient for analysis.

Results: VAS scores for total nasal symptom score and individual symptoms correlated significantly with SNOT-22, irrespective of VAS based subclasses for sino-nasal, ocular, and bronchial symptoms.

Conclusions: VAS for total sino-nasal symptom severity might be used for assessing disease severity, monitoring the course of the disease, and can be used for treatment decisions and disease burden.