Introduction
Severe asthma as defined in the GINA guidelines affects 5-10% of all asthma patients.
The introduction of highly specific monoclonal antibodies addressing IgE, IL5 and IL5Ra (biologicals) as add-on treatment in addition to high-dose inhaled corticosteroid (ICS) and controllers provide a treatment option to achieve control in severe asthma and prevent exacerbations.
Little is known about patientsŽ adherence to their ICS treatment after starting treatment with biologicals.
Aims
To investigate whether patients with severe asthma successfully reduced their use of ICS while treated with biologicals.
Methods
At our tertiary specialized severe asthma clinic 80 patients responded to an anonymous questionnaire concerning asthma symptoms and adherence to inhalation medicine in 2019.
In the same time period we examined the redeemed prescriptions for all asthma patients (n=83) at our department treated with biologicals in the official prescription database. Redemption of <80% of prescriptions was defined as non-adherent.
Results
Nineteen (23,8%) of 80 patients anonymously reported reduction of inhalation medicine. According to data from the prescription list 31 (37%) of 83 patients were non-adherent. Exacerbations in the non-adherent group (7, 23%) and the adherent group (17, 33%) were not significantly different (p=0.3, Chi2 test).
Conclusions
Patients with severe asthma treated with biologicals tend to reduce their use of ICS and underreport it.
ICS reduction without loss of symptom control supports that treatment with biologicals increases symptom control in patients with severe asthma.