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. 2025 Feb 26;35(1):10.
doi: 10.1038/s41533-024-00402-w.

Burden of illness among patients with asthma prescribed inhaled corticosteroids/long-acting β2-agonists

Shiyuan Zhang  1 , Alexandrosz Czira  2 , Julia Harley  3 , Kieran J Rothnie  2 , Lauren Lee  3 , Mark Small  3
Affiliations

Burden of illness among patients with asthma prescribed inhaled corticosteroids/long-acting β2-agonists

Shiyuan Zhang et al. NPJ Prim Care Respir Med. .

Abstract

Inhaled corticosteroids (ICS) plus long-acting β2-agonists (LABA) are recommended for maintenance-only or maintenance and reliever therapy (MART) in patients with asthma. However, real-world data on ICS/LABA as maintenance-only or MART are limited. This study characterized clinical, economic, and humanistic burdens of asthma in Canada, China, Europe, Japan, and the US, using data collected from patients and physicians via a cross-sectional survey (Asthma Disease Specific Programme). Patients were ≥18 years of age with physician-confirmed asthma and receiving fixed-dose ICS/LABA for ≥3 months. Mean physician-reported symptom-free days over the past 30 days ranged from 10.1-20.6 days, and 31.5-34.6% of ICS/LABA users self-reported not well-controlled asthma. SABA co-prescription was reported in 8.8-67.8% of patients. These findings highlight the continued disease burden among ICS/LABA users, with the high level of SABA co-prescription indicating potentially inappropriate prescribing of ICS/LABA as MART or detrimental reliance on SABA medication in addition to MART.

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Conflict of interest statement

Competing interests: A.C. was an employee of GSK and held financial equities in GSK. S.Z. and K.J.R. are employees of and hold financial equities in in GSK. J.H., L.L., and M.S. are employees of Adelphi Real World, an agency that received funding from GSK to undertake this study. Trade marks are the property of their respective owners.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1. Study design.
ACT Asthma Control Test, FEV1 forced expiratory volume in 1 s, HCP healthcare professional, ICS inhaled corticosteroids, JSEQ Jenkins Sleep Evaluation Questionnaire, LABA long-acting β2-agonist, US United States, WPAI Work Productivity and Activity Impairment.
Fig. 2
Fig. 2. ICS/LABA prescription by region.
ICS inhaled corticosteroid, LABA long-acting β2-agonist, MART maintenance and reliever therapy, SABA short-acting β2-agonist, US United States.
Fig. 3
Fig. 3. Physician-reported short-acting reliever medication use.
ICS inhaled corticosteroid, LABA long-acting β2-agonist, MART maintenance and reliever therapy, US United States.
Fig. 4
Fig. 4. WPAI of all ICS/LABA users.
a China, b Europe, and c the US. Data for Canada and Japan were not collected. ICS inhaled corticosteroid, LABA long-acting β2-agonist, SD standard deviation, US United States, WPAI Work Productivity and Activity Impairment.
Fig. 5
Fig. 5. EQ-5D utility and EQ-5D-VAS scores stratified by asthma control status and treatment group.
a EQ-5D utility and b EQ-5D-VAS scores. Data for Canada, China, and Japan were not collected. A score of 1.0 for EQ-5D utility and of 100.0 for EQ-5D-VAS denote the best health state. ACT Asthma Control Test, EQ-5D EuroQol 5 dimensions, ICS inhaled corticosteroid, LABA long-acting β2-agonist, MART maintenance and reliever therapy, SD standard deviation, US United States, VAS visual analog scale.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

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