Materials and methods:
Study design and Setting : This survey was conducted at Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham, UK. Initially, a written paper survey form (see figure 1) was distributed among the patients who were using steroid nasal spray and who came to attend rhinology and immunology outpatient clinics. But, shortly after this survey started, face to face patient consultations were stopped due to COVID-19 outbreak. Hence, a telephonic patient-reported survey was undertaken for the remaining patients. During the telephonic survey, we made a minor change in the question 3 of the survey (see figure 1) i.e. patients were asked to describe the head position, as patients can’t see head position photos printed on the written survey form. Also, we educated patients about the correct spray technique while collecting answers for the telephonic survey.
Participants : As this survey was specifically about the use of steroid nose spray, non-steroid formulations were not included i.e. nasal decongestant spray, saline spray etc. Additionally, there is a minor difference in the way the steroid nasal drops are instilled in the nose as compared to the spray technique. This survey only included patients using steroid nose spray, not nasal drops.