Children with better adherence to asthma treatments tended to have more severe asthma symptoms, according to Dr. Marjolein Engelkes of Erasmus University, Rotterdam (The Netherlands) and her associates.
Of the 14,303 children with asthma included in the study, short-acting beta2-agonists and inhaled corticosteroids were the most commonly prescribed treatments at 38 users/100 person-years and 31 users/100 person-years, respectively. Inhaled corticosteroid prescriptions were most common during the winter and in September, and decreased as children increased in age.
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The median medication possession ratio (MPR) for inhaled corticosteroids was 56%. Children with an MPR over 87% were significantly more likely to be younger at the start of inhaled corticosteroid treatment, visit specialists more often, and to have more exacerbations than children with an MPR less than 37%.
“These findings indicate that there is room for improvement of adherence to treatment, especially in children with milder forms of asthma,” the investigators concluded.
Find the full study in Pediatric Allergy and Immunology (2016 Mar. doi: 10.1111/pai.12507).