Suboptimal compliance to aerosol therapy in pediatric asthma: A prospective cohort study from Eastern India

Call to action: Addressing asthma diagnosis and treatment gaps in India

In comparison to the worldwide burden of asthma, although India contributes to 13% of the total asthma prevalence, it has a threefold higher mortality rate and more than twofold higher DALYs, indicating a substantial gap in asthma diagnosis and treatment. Asthma causes significant suffering, affecting people's quality of life and draining the country's resources; therefore, we must devise ways and means to fill these gaps. The most successful and cost-efficient strategy to battle asthma is to form strong partnerships between patients, the general public, the government, the pharmaceutical industry and non-governmental organisations. This necessitates a comprehensive approach that involves raising awareness, developing universally applicable recommendations, increasing access to high-quality asthma care, and other measures. The purpose of this article was to review the existing scenario of asthma management in India and the factors that contribute to it and devise unique and all-encompassing strategies to fill these gaps.

Medication adherence and pharmaceutical design strategies for pediatric patients: An overview

Medication adherence in pediatric patients is a key factor in drug development and dosage form design. High medication adherence is not only important to achieve the expected treatment effects but can also effectively reduce medical costs. It is an ongoing task to accurately identify differences in medication adherence between children and adults and analyze the factors related to pediatric medication adherence. This is necessary to guide the development of pediatric drugs. This review focuses on factors that influence pediatric medication adherence as well as pharmaceutical design strategies to improve adherence. Current new dosage forms, new technologies, and new devices are comprehensively summarized in terms of their advantages and limitations.

Adherence to inhalers and associated factors among adult asthma patients: an outpatient-based study in a tertiary hospital of Rajshahi, Bangladesh

BACKGROUND

Adherence to inhaler medication is an important contributor to optimum asthma control along with adequate pharmacotherapy. The objective of the present study was to assess self-reported adherence levels and to identify the potential factors associated with non-adherence to the inhalers among asthma patients.

METHODS

This facility-based cross-sectional study was conducted in the medicine outpatient department of Rajshahi Medical College Hospital from November 2020 to January 2021. A total of 357 clinically confirmed adult asthma patients were interviewed. Inhaler adherence was measured using the 10-item Test of Adherence scale (TAI).. Both descriptive and inferential statistics were used to express the socio-demographic of the patients and predictors of poor adherence to inhaler.

RESULTS

A substantial number of participants were non-adherent (86%) to inhaler medication. Patients non-adherent to inhaler medication are often younger (23.15, 95% CI 3.67-146.08), lived in the rural area (23.28, 95% CI 2.43-222.66), less year of schooling (5.69, 95% CI 1.27-25.44), and belonged to the middle income (aOR 9.74, 95% CI 2.11-44.9) than those adherent with the inhaler. The presence of comorbidities (12.91, 95% CI 1.41-117.61), prolonged duration of inhaler intake (5.69, 95% CI 1.22-26.49), consulting non-qualified practitioners (13.09, 95% CI 3.10-55.26) were the significant contributor of non-adherence.

CONCLUSION

Despite ongoing motivation and treatment, non-adherence to inhalation anti-asthmatic is high and several factors have been found to contribute. Regular monitoring and a guided patient-centered self-management approach might be helpful to address them in long run.

Researching on the compliance of epilepsy patients of the Phenobarbital Epilepsy Management Project in a rural area of China: A retrospective study

ABSTRACT

The aim of this study was to explore the compliance of epilepsy patients in the Phenobarbital Epilepsy Management Project in a rural area of China and its influencing factors, so as to provide the basis for further strategies.A retrospective study researching on the compliance of epilepsy patients in the Phenobarbital Epilepsy Management Project of Rural China was conducted. The Nan County, Hunan Province as a typical rural China was selected as the study site. We collected the compliance and other relative factors from 2017 to 2019 though the Phenobarbital Epilepsy Management Project data system.The good compliance patients in the Phenobarbital Epilepsy Management Project in a rural area of China were 98.99% (393/397); only 4 cases had poor compliance. The factors affecting the compliance of epilepsy patients were "adverse reactions of digestive tract symptoms," "how the patient felt physically, mentally, or working and learning ability during this period," and "the ratio of the attack to the previous one."The rate of good compliance among the epilepsy patients in the Phenobarbital Epilepsy Management Project in a rural area of China was high. More attention to education, patients' psychology, and the curative effect of family members may improve the compliance of patients with epilepsy further.