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World J Psychiatry. Oct 19, 2026; 16(10): 123481
Published online Oct 19, 2026. doi: 10.5498/wjp.123481
Published online Oct 19, 2026. doi: 10.5498/wjp.123481
Mediating role of sleep disturbance in association between nasal congestion severity and anxiety symptoms in allergic rhinitis patients
Jing Bai, Yin Li, Chao Zhang, Department of Otorhinolaryngology, The First People’s Hospital of Foshan, Foshan 528000, Guangdong Province, China
Chao Kong, Yan-Ping Luo, Department of Anesthesiology, The First People’s Hospital of Foshan, Foshan 528000, Guangdong Province, China
Co-first authors: Jing Bai and Chao Kong.
Author contributions: Bai J and Kong C are co-first authors; Bai J and Kong C contributed to conceptualization, methodology, and investigation; Luo YP performed formal analysis and data curation; Li Y contributed to conceptualization, formal analysis, and data curation; Zhang C contributed to data curation, methodology, and writing original draft; all authors have read and approved the final manuscript.
AI contribution statement: The authors take full responsibility and accountability for all content of this manuscript, including any portions for which AI tools were used as assistive technologies. All AI-assisted outputs were carefully reviewed, validated, and approved by the authors. AI tools were not used to generate original scientific data, perform independent scientific analyses, or draw scientific conclusions.
Institutional review board statement: This study has been approved by the Institutional Review Board and Ethics Committee of the First People’s Hospital of Foshan, and in line with the principles of the Declaration of Helsinki.
Informed consent statement: As the data is de-identified and cannot be linked to a particular individual for harm or loss of privacy, consent is not required. Therefore, it has been permitted under the rules for late-stage study retrospectively.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.
Data sharing statement: The datasets in this paper can be obtained from the corresponding authors upon reasonable request.
Corresponding author: Chao Zhang, MD, Researcher, Department of Otorhinolaryngology, The First People’s Hospital of Foshan, No. 81 Lingnan Avenue North, Chancheng District, Foshan 528000, Guangdong Province, China. fsyyyent@163.com
Received: May 22, 2026
Revised: June 24, 2026
Accepted: July 28, 2026
Published online: October 19, 2026
Processing time: 144 Days and 3 Hours
Revised: June 24, 2026
Accepted: July 28, 2026
Published online: October 19, 2026
Processing time: 144 Days and 3 Hours
Core Tip
Core Tip: This cross-sectional study of 235 allergic rhinitis patients found that sleep disturbance statistically mediated 67.2% of the observed association between nasal congestion severity and anxiety symptoms. The findings highlight that allergic rhinitis is not merely a local nasal disease but has systemic associations affecting sleep and mental health. Managing sleep disturbance may be as important as treating nasal congestion to reduce anxiety in allergic rhinitis patients. These hypothesis-generating results require prospective validation.