Patient Factors and Medication Guideline Adherence Among Older Women With Asthma

Abstract
APPROPRIATE USE of asthma medications reduces morbidity and mortality from asthma1,2 and improves quality of life.3 The National Asthma Education and Prevention Program (NAEPP) has distilled the literature on the effectiveness of asthma control medications into severity-based guidelines, which were originally published in 19914 and were updated in 1997.3 Adherence to these guidelines has been noted to be low, ranging from 20% to 72% among various groups in the United States.5-12 Studies have suggested that younger age,5,6,12 male sex,6 minority status,5,6 low socioeconomic status,7 severe asthma,6,8 and nonspecialist care5,6,9,12,13 are associated with nonadherence; however, these studies have been limited by poor response rates,5 ecological7 and cross-sectional design,6,9 and small sample size.10

This publication has 16 references indexed in Scilit: