Cailin Conner

Urban Health Today

According to research at the Queen Mary University of London, more than 25% of patients with asthma overuse their rescue inhalers, which puts them at an increased risk of severe asthma attacks. The study was published in the <a href="https://bjgp.org/content/72/722/e619" target="_blank" rel="noopener">British Journal of General Practice</a>.The authors performed a cross-sectional study utilizing clinical data from primary care records to quantify the prevalence and identify the predictors of overprescribing short-acting beta-agonist (SABA) inhalers. The data population included nearly 31,000 people with asthma; patient demographics, asthma management, comorbidities, and prescriptions for asthma medications were subsequently analyzed.Of the patients overusing their rescue inhalers, nearly a quarter of those were also underusing preventative (eg, corticosteroid) inhalers, which raised concerns about inadequate prevention in people with significant asthma burdens.Co-author of the study, Paul Pfeffer, MD, PhD, remarked, &ldquo;There is an ongoing major burden of inappropriate and dangerous rescue inhaler overuse in asthma, and our paper highlights the complexity of the problem with multiple reasons patients are over-prescribed SABA inhalers. The findings are a call for more detailed research into interventions to reduce inappropriate SABA overuse in different patient groups.&rdquo;In addition, the researchers noted that the prescription of inhalers varied widely between practices. They found that some practices overprescribed up to 6% of their asthma patients, while others overprescribed as many as 60%. The authors wrote, &ldquo;the current study results highlight the importance of general practice teams working effectively with pharmacists to ensure a shared understanding on access to SABA medications. In some cases this may require removing SABA medications from repeat dispensing.&rdquo;Source: <a href="https://bjgp.org/content/72/722/e619" target="_blank" rel="noopener">British Journal of General Practice</a>

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More Than a Quarter of People With Asthma Overuse Their Rescue Inhalers

Asthma

more than 25% of patients with asthma overuse their rescue inhalers, which puts them at an increased risk of severe asthma attacks

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