Tobacco smoking is thought to induce nasal symptoms which may impair quality-of-life (QOL) but there is no study which has analyzed the impact of tobacco smoking in normal subjects or patients with allergic rhinitis.

In order to assess the impact of tobacco smoking on nasal QOL, a transversal study was carried out on 185 smoking or non-smoking subjects who were free from rhinitis or were suffering from current allergic rhinitis. Validated questionnaires were used for rhinitis (Score For Allergic Rhinitis: SFAR), RQLQ and tobacco smoking (European Community Respiratory Health Survey). These subjects were selected from a specific demographic cohort.

The ANOVA showed that there was no interaction between rhinitis and tobacco smoking. Smokers tended to have a greater SFAR score than non-smokers (2; 0-4 for non smokers, 4; 2-8 for smokers, NS). Subjects with current allergic rhinitis had a significant increase in all RQLQ scores by comparison with subjects without allergic rhinitis. Smoking did not affect the results of RQLQ scores whether or not the subjects had current allergic rhinitis. However, due to the small number of subjects with current allergic rhinitis, the results can only be interpreted for subjects without rhinitis.

Tobacco smoking does not impair nasal-specific RQLQ in subjects without allergic rhinitis and is unlikely to impair nasal-specific QOL in subjects with allergic rhinitis.