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  • Title: Asthma treatment needs: a comparison of patients' and health care professionals' perceptions.
    Author: Hyland ME, Ståhl E.
    Journal: Clin Ther; 2004 Dec; 26(12):2141-52. PubMed ID: 15823778.
    Abstract:
    BACKGROUND: Patients' perceptions of asthma tend to differ from those of clinicians, who primarily focus on asthma control. Patients' treatment needs and preferences may not be adequately addressed. OBJECTIVE: The aims of this study were as follows: to provide data on unmet treatment needs and to investigate the main finding of a qualitative study using a questionnaire study. METHODS: To assess treatment needs in patients with asthma, focus groups were conducted with patients/parents and clinicians. Based on these results, quantitative surveys of adult patients and parents were performed in the United Kingdom, Germany, and Spain. RESULTS: The UK focus group comprised 11 patients and 8 parents; in Germany, there were 10 patients and 11 parents; in Spain, there were 5 patients and 8 parents. The focus groups showed some differences between clinicians' and patients'/parents' perceptions of treatment. For patients, side effects meant long-term effects (ie, 10-20 years); for clinicians, it meant occasional local problems. The quantitative study comprised 454 participants: 310 adult patients (mean [SD] age, 37.13 [13.12] years) and 142 parents (children's mean [SD] age, 13.98 [1.37] years), plus 2 nonspecified. Some patients reported good asthma control and simultaneously reported frequent exacerbations. Most patients and parents expressed a preference for a simpler regimen using fewer drugs, and most had concerns about their treatment. Although some patients concurred with treatment guidelines, 62.2% tended to rely on reliever medication (ie, bronchodilators). Additionally, 6.9% described their asthma as very well-controlled but reported experiencing asthma symptoms > or =3 days per week. Finally, 1.9% of patients and 2.1% of parents reporting very well-controlled asthma also reported visiting the emergency department or calling a physician for a home visit in the previous 3 months. CONCLUSIONS: Asthma patients and parents of asthmatic children had unmet treatment needs and may interpret medical terminology differently than clinicians.
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