Prescription of Medications by Primary Care Physicians in the Light of Asthma Guidelines
- 1 February 1998
- journal article
- research article
- Published by S. Karger AG in Respiration
- Vol. 65 (1) , 18-20
- https://doi.org/10.1159/000029222
Abstract
The purpose of this study was the evaluation of the extent of dissemination of asthma guidelines among primary health care physicians in Greece. Sixty-five of 80 primary care physicians (response rate 80.2%) answered a questionnaire about asthma morbidity, manner of choice of treatment and asthma management plans. One out of 12 patients who were examined by a primary care physician suffered from bronchial asthma. Forty-two physicians treated their asthma patients according to the pulmonologist’s recommendations, and only 15 prescribed asthma treatment according to asthma guidelines. β2-agonist inhalers and theophylline tablets represent 41% of all prescribed medicines in asthma and corticosteroid inhalers 24% of medications. Eight physicians prescribed theophylline as the first and 20 physicians corticosteroid inhalers as the third choice of medication in asthma treatment. Consequently, the prescription of β2-agonist inhalers and theophylline tablets seems to be higher than asthma guidelines recommend. Better dissemination of guidelines among specialists and primary health care physicians will hopefully make asthma management optimal.Keywords
This publication has 1 reference indexed in Scilit:
- Inadequate outpatient medical therapy for patients with asthma admitted to two urban hospitalsThe American Journal of Medicine, 1996