Risks associated with managing asthma without a preventer: urgent healthcare, poor asthma control and over-the-counter reliever use in a cross-sectional population survey.

ABSTRACT:

Objectives

Overuse of asthma relievers, particularly without anti-inflammatory preventers, increases asthma risks. This study aimed to identify how many reliever-only users have urgent healthcare, explore their attitudes and beliefs about asthma and its treatment, and investigate whether purchasing over-the-counter relievers was associated with worse asthma outcomes than by prescription.

Design and setting

Cross-sectional population-based Internet survey in Australia.

Participants

Of 2686 participants ≥16 years with current asthma randomly drawn from a web-based panel, 1038 (50.7% male) used only reliever medication.

Main outcome measures

Urgent asthma-related healthcare; Asthma Control Test (ACT); patient attitudes about asthma and medications; reliever purcha

SUBMITTER: Reddel HK 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5623555 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature