Examination of Barriers to Medication Adherence, Asthma Management, and Control Among Community Pharmacy Patients With Asthma

Abstract

Objective: To describe the prevalence of common barriers to asthma medication adherence and examine associations between patient-reported asthma controller adherence and asthma control, therapy adherence barriers, and asthma management characteristics. Methods: Previously developed asthma-specific tool was pilot tested on a convenience sample of adult patients with persistent asthma. The following data were collected via patient survey: demographic characteristics and comorbidities, adherence, asthma control, and asthma management characteristics. Descriptive and inferential statistics were used to address the study objective. Results: The patients (N = 93) were 45.4 (17.2) years of age, and 66.7% were female. The majority had poor (68.8%) adherence, with 61.3% of patients having controlled asthma. There was no significant association between adherence and asthma control. The mean number of barriers for good and poor adherence groups differed significantly: 2.0 ± 1.1 and 5.4 ± 2.4, respectively ( P < .0001). Having an asthma action plan (AAP) was the only asthma management characteristic significantly related to adherence. The majority of patients with poor adherence did not have an AAP (76.6%), whereas 81.5% of patients with good adherence did have an AAP ( P < 0.0001). Conclusions: The use of this survey tool confirmed presence of asthma-specific barriers, thus using this specialized approach may lead to more effective, targeted counseling in community pharmacy settings.