Health care education, delivery, and qualityAdherence and persistence with fluticasone propionate/salmeterol combination therapy
Section snippets
Methods
Data in this retrospective cohort study of medication adherence and persistence were obtained from blind computerized pharmacy records of a national pharmacy chain, representing more than 1200 community pharmacies nationwide. Data contained prescription drug activity for all of the prescriptions filled at this national chain for each individual patient regardless of health care plan. Diagnosis information was not included in the database. A total of 5504 patients filled initial FSC prescription
Results
A total of 5504 patients were included in the study. Of these patients, 2349 (42.7%) were prescribed the 200 μg dose, and 3155 (57.3%) were prescribed the 500 μg dose. The distribution of patient demographic characteristics is seen in Table I. Patients' ages ranged from 5 to 96 years (mean ± SD, 54.0 ± 22.0), and 60.2% of the patients were female. Pharmacy databases do not include information on patient race. In this study, race was estimated on the basis of zip codes from US Census data. Of
Discussion
In this study, adult patients on a new prescription for FSC obtained remarkably little of their controller medication. On average, the adherence rate to FSC therapy was only 8.8% over the 1-year period, and the majority of patients filled their prescription only once. The discrepancy between current FSC therapy guidelines and patient behavior is enormous and indicates a need for careful re-evaluation of treatment strategies. Efforts to educate patients and providers about the importance of
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2021, Respiratory Medicine: XCitation Excerpt :Noncompliance to medications and office visits is highly prevalent among patients with frequent exacerbations of asthma and COPD. Studies show that adherence to daily inhaler use in COPD and asthma is low [5–7] , and in fact, it is the lowest among major chronic illness medications like antihypertensive, diabetes medication, statins and proton pump inhibitors. Prior research on medical noncompliance in chronic disease has shown that non adherence to treatment regimen can adversely impact the disease progression and healthcare cost [8,9].
Disclosure of potential conflict of interest: The authors have declared that they have no conflict of interest.