Immunotherapy Application and Compliance Assessment
Patients were applied one of Alutard SQ 100% vespula or Apis mellifera (Alutard SQ, ALK, Hørsholm, Denmark) venom immunotherapy, Allergovit Grass 006 (Allergopharma Joachim Ganzer KG, Hamburg, Germany) allergen immunotherapy or NovoHelisen Depot HDM %50 DP+%50 DF (Allergopharma Joachim Ganzer KG, Hamburg, Germany) allergen immunotherapies. VIT doses were administered in 1-week intervals and were gradually increased to the maintenance dose over 6 months11. Then, maintenance doses were administered every 4 to 6 weeks for up to 5 year12. AIT doses for grass allergy and house dust mite(HDM) allergy; were administered in 1-week intervals and were gradually increased to the maintenance doses over 6 weeks in grass and 14 weeks in HDM13. Then, maintenance doses were administered every 4 to 6 weeks for up to 4 years.
Compliance was defined as receiving the allergen immunotherapy according to the prescribed treatment course for each patient, and evaluated during the first-year, second-year, third year, fourth-year, and fifth-year, or treatment completion. Patients who had ≤2 two week breaks from their defined treatment schedule per year were accepted to be in excellent compliance, 3 to 4 two week breaks were in good compliance, 5 to 6 two week breaks were fair compliance, and 7 or more two week breaks were poor compliance14. Patients who had three consecutive months delay from their defined treatment schedule were accepted as dropped out15. The reasons for drop-out was recorded.