Asthma care during COVID-19: differences in attitudes and expectations between physicians and patients

Management of asthma in primary care in the changing context of the COVID-19 pandemic: a qualitative longitudinal study with patients

BACKGROUND

The COVID-19 pandemic dramatically affected asthma monitoring in primary care, but exploration of patients' views and their experiences of managing their asthma and seeking help from primary care during the pandemic has been limited.

AIM

To investigate patients' experiences of asthma management in the community during the COVID-19 pandemic.

DESIGN AND SETTING

A qualitative longitudinal study using semi-structured interviews with patients from four GP practices across diverse regions including Thames Valley, Greater Manchester, Yorkshire, and North West Coast.

METHOD

Interviews were undertaken with patients with asthma, who were usually managed in primary care. The interviews were audiorecorded, transcribed, and analysed using inductive temporal thematic analysis and a trajectory approach.

RESULTS

Forty-six interviews were conducted with 18 patients over an 8-month period that covered contrasting stages of the COVID-19 pandemic. Patients felt less vulnerable as the pandemic subsided, but the process of making sense of risk was dynamic and influenced by multiple factors. Patients relied on self-management strategies, but felt that routine asthma reviews should still have been conducted during the pandemic and highlighted that they had limited opportunities to discuss their asthma with health professionals. Patients with well-controlled symptoms felt that remote reviews were largely satisfactory, but still thought face-to-face reviews were necessary for certain aspects, such as physical examination and patient-led discussions of sensitive or broader issues associated with asthma, including mental health.

CONCLUSION

The dynamic nature of patients' perception of risk throughout the pandemic highlighted the need for greater clarity regarding personal risk. Having an opportunity to discuss their asthma is important to patients, even when access to face-to-face consultations in primary care is more restricted than usual.

An Electronic Shared Decision-Making App to Improve Asthma Outcomes: A Randomized Controlled Trial

BACKGROUND

Shared decision-making (SDM) incorporates patient values and preferences to optimize asthma management decisions. Available asthma SDM aids primarily focus on medication selection.

OBJECTIVE

To assess the usability, acceptability, and preliminary effectiveness of an electronic SDM application, the ACTION (Active Conversation in asthma Treatment shared decisION-making) app, that addressed medication, nonmedication, and COVID-19 concerns for asthma.

METHODS

In this pilot study, 81 participants with asthma were randomized into the control arm or ACTION app intervention. The ACTION app was completed 1 week before a clinic visit, and responses were shared with the medical provider. The primary outcomes were patient satisfaction and SDM quality. Next, ACTION app users (n = 9) and providers (n = 5) provided feedback through separate virtual focus groups. Sessions were coded by comparative analysis.

RESULTS

The ACTION app group scored higher agreement that providers adequately addressed COVID-19 concerns compared with the control group (4.4 vs 3.7, P = .03). Although the ACTION app group had a higher total 9-item Shared Decision-Making Questionnaire score, this did not reach statistical significance (87.1 vs 83.3, P = .2). However, the ACTION app group demonstrated stronger agreement that their physician knew exactly how they wanted to be involved in decision-making (4.3 vs 3.8, P = .05), providers asked about preferences (4.3 vs 3.8, P = .05), and that different options were thoroughly weighed (4.3 vs 3.8, P = .03). Major focus group themes included that the ACTION app was practical and established a patient-centered agenda.

CONCLUSION

An electronic asthma SDM app that incorporates patient preferences regarding nonmedication-related, medication-related, and COVID-19-related concerns is well accepted and can improve patient satisfaction and SDM.

Caregiver Experiences Managing Persistent Childhood Asthma During the COVID-19 Pandemic

COVID-19 has adversely affected child wellness, but it is unclear whether the pandemic led to changes in home management of chronic diseases like asthma. We surveyed 93 caregivers of children with persistent asthma from 2 ongoing asthma trials to measure changes in home asthma management, stressors, access to health care, and caregivers' worry about COVID-19 affecting their child's health. We conducted descriptive analyses, and assessed whether caregiver worry about COVID-19 was associated with asthma management, stressors, health care access, or recent symptoms. Most (80%) caregivers worried that COVID-19 would affect their child's health, and >50% restricted their child's physical activity to avoid asthma symptoms. We observed a dose-dependent relationship between increasing worry about COVID-19 and activity restrictions, financial hardship, difficulty obtaining asthma medications, and nocturnal asthma symptoms. These findings raise concern that children with persistent asthma may be at particular risk for weight gain and obesity-associated asthma morbidity due to the pandemic.

Severe asthma in the era of COVID-19: A narrative review

INTRODUCTION AND OBJECTIVES

Severe asthma management during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic is a challenge and will continue to be, at least in the next few months, as herd immunity is still a mirage. A lot has to be learned about how COVID-19 affects underlying diseases, and severe asthma is no exception.

METHODS

Narrative review of papers available until February 2021 in PubMed and Google Scholar, relating severe asthma and COVID-19. Four main research topics were reviewed: SARS-CoV-2 infection: immunology and respiratory pathology; interrelationship of severe asthma endotypes and COVID-19 disease mechanisms; severe asthma epidemiology and COVID-19; and biologics for severe asthma in the context of COVID-19.

RESULTS

COVID-19 disease mechanisms start with upper respiratory cell infection, and afterwards several immunological facets are activated, contributing to disease severity, namely cell-mediated immunity and antibody production. Although infrequent in the COVID-19 course some patients develop a cytokine storm that causes organ damage and may lead to acute respiratory distress syndrome or multiorgan failure. Regarding severe asthma endotypes, type2-high might have a protective role both in infection risk and disease course. There is conflicting data regarding the epidemiological relationship between COVID-19 among severe asthma patients, with some studies reporting increased risk of infection and disease course, whereas others the other way round. Biologics for severe asthma do not seem to increase the risk of infection and severe COVID-19, although further evidence is needed.

CONCLUSIONS

Globally, in the era of COVID-19, major respiratory societies recommend continuing the biologic treatment, preferably in a self-home administration program.

The Impact of Non-Ophthalmic Factors on Intravitreal Injections During the COVID-19 Lockdown

Purpose

Early on in the COVID-19 pandemic, it was difficult to know what factors would affect patient and physician decision-making regarding ophthalmic care utilization. The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of non-ophthalmic factors on patient decision-making to receive intravitreal injections during the COVID-19 lockdown.

Patients and Methods

Data on patients who had intravitreal injection appointments at a tertiary care Veterans Health Administration clinic during a seven-week period (March 19, 2020-May 8, 2020) of the COVID-19 outbreak in Los Angeles County were collected and compared to patients who had intravitreal injection appointments during the same time period in 2019. Demographic characteristics, injection diagnoses, visual acuities, body mass indices, co-morbidities, and psychiatric conditions of patients and clinic volumes were tabulated and compared between the two time periods.

Results

There were 86 patients in the injection clinic in 2020 compared to 176 patients in 2019. The mean age and gender of patients in the injection clinic did not differ between 2019 and 2020. Compared to 2019, the number of patients who identified as Hispanic or Latino remained nearly the same, but the number of patients who identified as White, Black, or Asian or Pacific Islander decreased by nearly half. In 2020, a greater proportion of patients came to the injection clinic for neovascular age-related macular degeneration (56.5% vs 39.3%, p=0.017), but a decreased proportion of patients diagnosed with a heart condition (OR 0.57, 95% CI 0.33, 0.96), chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (OR 0.43, 95% CI 0.21, 0.91), or asthma (OR 0.09, 95% CI 0.01, 0.70) came to the injection clinic.

Conclusion

The COVID-19 pandemic was associated with behavioral changes in eyecare utilization influenced by race and systemic co-morbidities. These data can be used to design and implement strategies to address disparities in essential ophthalmic care among vulnerable populations.