Many Asthma Patients Don ’t Follow Their Medication Plans. Here’s How to Change That

In 2017, an expert commission organized by the Lancet examined the current state of asthma care. That commission identified poor medication adherence as one of the principal barriers standing between people with asthma and improved disease outcomes. Adherence is “the biggest elephant in the room,” the commission wrote. “Although lip service is paid to optimizing basic management, in practice often very little is done beyond asking the patient if they are taking treatment.” According to research in the European Respiratory Journal, more than half of all asthma patients fail to take their medications as directed. Some other surveys put that figure as high as 80%. Clinicians who treat people with asthma affirm that many are not following their medication plan. “Personally, I would say adherence is a problem for at least 50% of patients,” says Dr. Ruchi Gupta, a professor and asthma specialist at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine. [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”] The issue of poor adherence is so common that experts aren’t sure what percentage of asthma patients truly do have severe asthma. That’s because the condition is defined by its uncontrollability; if more people with severe asthma took their medications as instructed, it’s likely that a significant portion of them would get their asthma under control, and as a result would no longer qualify for a severe asthma diagnosis. But increa...
Source: TIME: Health - Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Tags: Uncategorized Disease healthscienceclimate Source Type: news