Treatment Adherence in Adults With Asthma and COPD

Adult patients with asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) who use the budesonide/formoterol inhaler are very satisfied with the treatment, report moderate to high levels of medication adherence, and report that the treatment is easy to use. The phase 4, real-world, multinational, observational, prospective study was conducted in 10 European countries. Results of the study were published in the Journal of Asthma.

The investigators sought to evaluate treatment adherence, satisfaction, and ease of use for the budesonide/formoterol inhaler among participants in the study. The study was conducted between May 2015 and April 2017 at 140 European centers in Croatia, Denmark, Ireland, Italy, The Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, and the United Kingdom. The primary study objective was to assess the proportion of patients with asthma and COPD who received a fixed-dose combination of an inhaled corticosteroid/long-acting β₂-agonist that was delivered by various inhaler systems, including budesonide/formoterol. During a single physician’s office visit, users of the budesonide/formoterol inhaler self-assessed treatment adherence using the 8-item Morisky Medication Adherence Scale (MMAS-8^®). During the same visit, they also evaluated satisfaction and ease of use using 10-point scales.

Among a total of 1661 SPRINT study participants (1101 of whom had asthma and 560 of whom had COPD), 342 were treated with the budesonide/formoterol inhaler prior to study inclusion (235 who had asthma and 107 who had COPD). Overall, among budesonide/formoterol inhaler users, 72.5% reported medium to high medication adherence (MMAS-8 score ≥6).

The mean satisfaction score for the budesonide/formoterol inhaler was 8.9±1.6. Nearly all of the budesonide/formoterol inhaler users (98.8%) reported being at least satisfied with their inhaler, with 85.4% of them reporting being very satisfied. The mean ease-of-use score for the budesonide/formoterol inhaler was 9.1±1.3.

The investigators concluded that the observed high satisfaction with and adherence with use of the budesonide/formoterol inhaler suggests the potential for improved clinical outcomes among patients who are treated with this device. Additional studies of a longer duration that are performed in more than a single physician’s office visit are warranted.

Reference

van der Palen J, Cerveri I, Roche N, et al. DuoResp^® Spiromax^® adherence, satisfaction and ease of use: findings from a multi-country observational study in patients with asthma and COPD in Europe (SPRINT) [published online July 11, 2019]. J Asthma. doi:10.1080/02770903.2019.1634097