Influencing factors of poor treatment adherence in uncontrolled asthma patients in China

Abstract

Objective: To evaluate the influencing factors of poor treatment adherence in patients with uncontrolled asthma in China. Methods: From April 2017 to April 2018, all asthma patients with uncontrolled asthma and poor compliance in 32 third-class hospitals in 28 provinces and cities of China mainland included in the "National Mobile Asthma Assessment and Management Project" were selected as the subjects. A total of 923 patients were enrolled in the study including 388 males and 535 females. By analyzing the baseline data of the patients at the initial visit when enrolled, the influencing factors of poor adherence of adult asthma was analyzed by inter-group comparison and χ2 test. Results: Poor compliance in asthma was related to the following factors: age from 59 to 68 years old, course of disease more than 20 years, low education level, non-local follow-up, having obstructive ventilation dysfunction and low awareness of the disease[P values were 0.026(t=1.20), 0.004(t=3.97), 0.001(t=4.92), 0.003(t=3.98), 0.032(t=1.22) and 0.001(t=4.99), respectively]. Totally, 243 patients (26.33%) answered all the questions about asthma correctly. Their medication adherence rating scale (MARS-A) scores were significantly higher than those who answered incompletely correctly (36.23±5.85 vs. 31.77±5.74, P=0.001). Conclusions: The adherence of adult asthma patients was affected by individual and external environment factors. Clinicians should choose individualized methods based on the characteristics of patients. Patient education should be strengthened to improve patients' awareness of the disease at the same time.