Educational Objective: At the conclusion of this presentation, the participants should be able to identify differences between patients and providers regarding symptoms caused by the sinuses.
Objectives: The paranasal sinuses make important contributions to general health and quality of life. Yet, patient perceptions of the symptoms caused by the sinuses may vary widely and are subject to ambiguity. We aimed to explore the perceived symptoms caused by the sinuses, as defined by otolaryngology patients and clinicians. Study Design: We performed a multi-institutional, cross-sectional study using a semantics based questionnaire.
Methods: Consecutive patients were enrolled at six academic otolaryngology centers from June 2020 until May 2021. The primary outcome examined patient and provider definitions for the symptoms caused by the sinuses from a list of twenty-eight proposed terms covering six general categories. This data was also collected from otolaryngology faculty at the same institutions.
Results: Responses were obtained from 378 patients (54% female, mean age 47.4 years) and 28 otolaryngologists (36% female, mean age 37.1 years). Patients selected a median of 12 terms, compared to 7.5 for otolaryngologists. Among patients, the most frequently selected symptom categories were mucus (350, 92.6%), airflow (344, 91.0%), and pain (331, 87.6%). Compared to patients, clinicians selected with lower frequency the symptom categories of mucus (21.2% difference; 95% CI 11.5%-32.1%), airflow (19.6% difference, 95% CI 9.2%-30.4%), and pain (9% difference; 95% CI 0.1%-20.3%) domains. Multiple categories were selected by 98% of patients and 79% of providers.
Conclusions: Semantic differences exist between patients and providers regarding the symptoms caused by the sinuses with providers having a narrower set of potential symptoms. These differences may have important implications for communication between otolaryngologists and their patients.