Symptom Control and Adherence are Major Issues for Asthmatic Patients: Can they be Improved and are They Linked?

Background

A cluster randomized controlled trial involving 15 out of the 20 Italian regions was conducted between September 2014 and July 2015 with data collection before, during and after pharmacists’ intervention; every 3 months (T0, T3, T6, T9). Pharmacists were randomly allocated to different groups after stratification by region: A (n=104) were trained to provide the Italian Medicines Use review (I-MUR) immediately after completion of the baseline Asthma Control TestTM (ACT) score; B (n=112) received training and provided this service 3 months later. The primary outcome measure was asthma control, assessed using the ACT scores, before and after the I-MUR intervention, defined by the international guidelines (ACT?19 = not controlled; ACT ?20 = controlled). Secondary outcome was adherence to treatment before and after the intervention assessed using the Morisky scale.

Pharmacists in group A recruited 428 patients and in group B, 456. Patients were well distributed among regions; the percentage of female was 58.6%. Baseline ACT score showed that 56% of patients had asthma not fully controlled.

Conclusion

References

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