How often do asthma patients claim prescribed therapy?

Abstract

Background: Adherence is a pivotal issue in asthma, and differences between prescriptions and dispensations have been little explored. Objectives: To identify a potential gap between prescriptions issued by General Practitioners’ (GPs) and dispensations recorded in French national claims data, among patients with allergic rhinitis (AA) and asthma. Methods: Using Electronic medical Records (EMRs) from IMS Disease Analyzer, we identified a cohort of French patients with AA and asthma, based on GPs’ diagnoses and prescribing data. For each patient, the EMR was linked to claims data with individual medical resource utilization. Percentages of dispensed prescriptions were assessed from July 2012 to July 2013 (study period), using information recorded in both data sources. Sub-groups analyses were performed according to the level of asthma control assessed in the 12 months before the study period. Results: 3,654 patients were included: 49.0%, 32.3% and 18.7% of patients had well controlled, not well controlled, and poorly controlled asthma, respectively. Altogether, 87.2% of asthma prescriptions were dispensed. Regarding specific therapy, 85.8% of short acting beta agonists (SABAs), 87.0% of long acting beta agonists (LABAs), 90.6% of montelukast, 84.9% of inhaled corticosteroids (ICs), and 87.6% of fixed dose combinations (FDCs) of ICs+LABAs were dispensed. Percentages of dispensed prescriptions varied according to asthma control: SABAs prescriptions were more often filled when asthma was poorly controlled while this was the opposite for ICs and FDCs of ICs+LABAs. Conclusions: In primary care, asthma patients did not refill all prescriptions; unfilled prescriptions varied with specific asthma therapy and level of asthma control.