Abstract
Background:
Long-term studies indicate that adherence to asthma controller therapy decreases over time, and persistence with therapy may be poor.
Methods:
This primary care database study assessed persistence with therapy over one year after first prescription of inhaled corticosteroid (ICS) for children aged 2–14 years with a diagnosis of asthma. Children with intermittent asthma were excluded. Discontinuation was defined as no ICS prescription during the last three months of the follow-up year.
Results:
2220 of 7375 children receiving a first prescription for ICS had persistent asthma. Mean (±SD) age was 7.3 (±3.8) years; 59.5% were male. A total of 745 (33.6%) continued initial ICS, 133 (6.0%) received add-on therapy, 150 (6.8%) switched to another asthma therapy, and 1192 (53.7%) discontinued therapy. These percentages were similar for children aged 2–5 or 6–14 years.
Conclusion:
Persistence with first-time ICS monotherapy is poor among children with persistent asthma.
Similar content being viewed by others
Article PDF
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Competing interests
Qiaoyi Zhang, Stephanie D Taylor, and Vasilisa Sazonov-Kocevar are employees of Merck & Co., Inc.
Neither Mike Thomas nor any member of his close family has any shares in pharmaceutical companies. In the last three years he has received fees for acting as a consultant for MSD, Schering, and GSK and has received speaker's honoraria for speaking at sponsored meetings from the following companies marketing respiratory and allergy products: AstraZeneca, Boehringer Inglehiem, GSK, MSD, Schering-Plough, Teva. He has received honoraria for attending advisory panels with Altana, AstraZeneca, BI, GSK, MSD, Merck Respiratory, Schering-Plough, Teva. He has received sponsorship to attend international scientific meetings from GSK, MSD, AstraZeneca. He has received funding for research projects from GSK, MSD, AstraZeneca. He holds a research fellowship from Asthma UK. He is an Associate Editor of the PCRJ, but was not involved in the editorial review of, nor the decision to publish, this article.
David Price has consultant arrangements with Aerocrine, BI, Dey Pharmaceuticals, GSK, MSD, Novartis, Schering-Plough, and Teva. He or his team have received grants and research support for research in respiratory disease from the following organisations: UK National Health Service, Aerocrine, AstraZeneca, BI, GSK, MSD, Novartis, Pfizer, Schering Plough, and Teva. He has spoken for: BI, GSK, MSD, Pfizer, and Teva.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Zhang, Q., Taylor, S., Sazonov, V. et al. Suboptimal persistence with inhaled corticosteroid monotherapy among children with persistent asthma in the UK. Prim Care Respir J 20, 97–101 (2011). https://doi.org/10.4104/pcrj.2010.00061
Received:
Revised:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.4104/pcrj.2010.00061
