Asthma: the difficulties of management confirmed in an international survey

An international survey confirms that the management of adults with asthma is difficult, the majority of patients being ill observant.

Funded by a German pharmaceutical company, the GAPP (Global asthma physician and patient survey) study was conducted by Harris Interactive of 1,726 adults with asthma and 1,733 general practitioners and specialists in sixteen countries including France (102 patients and 100 physicians surveyed ), under the auspices of several learned societies, including the World Allergy Organization.

The survey results confirm that the optimal treatment of asthma remains difficult to obtain.

It appears that 64% of doctors believe their patients are adherent 51% to 99% of the time while they are only 26% said their treatment goals, according to a statement released by the pharmaceutical company. For France, the results are presented in a slightly different way: 36% of patients surveyed say they take their continuous treatment and only 15% of doctors believe their patients are adherent to over 75%.

The poor are not strictly compliant patients follow their treatment, mainly because they feel it is not necessary to take if symptoms disappear, because they feel it is unnecessary to take it as often, because they simply forgot to take it or because they are afraid of side effects.

They are 34% report having experienced any adverse short-term effects of inhaled corticosteroids (21% in France) and 19% of side effects with long-term inhaled corticosteroids (11% in France). Of these patients, 37% say they have reduced the doses of their treatment, 31% were omitted doses and 21% discontinued treatment.

It seems that patients are unfamiliar with the adverse effects of inhaled corticosteroids: 20% say they ignore the short-term side effects such as thrush, pharyngitis and hoarseness (26% in France) and 31% do not know the long-term side effects such qu'ostéoporose, cataract and glaucoma (37% in France).

The survey also reveals that the perception of patients and doctors differ: while almost half of patients say they never discussed the adverse effects of inhaled corticosteroids with their doctor, 92% of physicians provide their side to discuss sometimes or always short-term and 66% long-term effects.

The perception of therapeutic education also differs: while 23% of patients reported that the technical aspect of treatment is not at all addressed during the consultations, 87% of physicians believe to spend half the time of consultation.

In France, 62% of doctors against 23% of patients reported that more than a quarter of the time is devoted to consultations about the importance of the technical aspects of treatment to ensure success.

Finally, 81% of doctors believe that certain needs are not met with respect to inhaled corticosteroids and 85% are willing to prescribe a new inhaled corticosteroid with an "improved" safety profile and tolerability (France respectively 74 % and 80%).