Chronic rhinosinusitis: an under-researched epidemic

Background: Chronic rhinosinusitis (CRS) is a highly prevalent inflammatory disease with significant impacts on patient quality of life and daily productivity. Evaluating the volume of research on CRS, relative to similar chronic diseases, may provide insight into current disparities in research prioritization. Methods: A systematic review was performed using Ovid MEDLINE (R) (1970 - December 31st, 2014) to define the volume of research publications for CRS, asthma, and diabetes mellitus (DM). Primary outcomes were overall volume of research publications and volume of publications per year. A subgroup analysis was performed using chi-square (chi(2)) omnibus test with 2x3 contingency tables to identify significant differences in the proportion of total randomized controlled trials, systematic reviews, meta-analyses, and economic evaluation publications between CRS, asthma, and DM groups. Results: There were substantial disparities in the volume of research published over the last 45 years for CRS (n = 7,962), asthma (n = 136,652), and DM (n = 337,411). Although the volume of research for CRS in increasing, the disparities in the annual publication volumes between CRS, asthma, and DM appeared consistent over the last 45 years. Conclusions: Outcomes from this review have demonstrated a large disparity in the volume of published research for CRS compared to asthma and DM. Given the similarities in prevalence rates, impact on quality of life and economic burden, the relative under supply of CRS research should prompt efforts to increase research prioritization for this chronic disease.