Beta-agonist overuse and delay in obtaining medical review in high risk asthma: a secondary analysis of data from a randomised controlled trial

Pilcher, Janine, Patel, Mitesh, Pritchard, Alison, Thayabaran, Darmiga, Ebmeier, Stefan, Shaw, Dominick E., Black, Peter, Braithwaite, Irene, Weatherall, Mark and Beasley, Richard (2017) Beta-agonist overuse and delay in obtaining medical review in high risk asthma: a secondary analysis of data from a randomised controlled trial. npj Primary Care Respiratory Medicine, 27 (1). p. 33. ISSN 2055-1010

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Abstract

Asthma mortality surveys report delays in seeking medical review and overuse of beta-agonist therapy as factors contributing to a fatal outcome. However, the strength of these associations is limited because many asthma deaths are unwitnessed. We undertook a secondary analysis of data from a 24-week randomised controlled trial of 303 patients with high-risk asthma, randomised to combination budesonide/formoterol inhaler according to a single maintenance and reliever therapy regimen or fixed dose budesonide/formoterol with salbutamol as reliever (Standard) regimen. Medication use was measured by electronic monitors. The thresholds for high, marked and extreme beta-agonist use days were defined in the single maintenance and reliever therapy arm as: >8, >12 and >16 actuations of budesonide/formoterol in excess of four maintenance doses, respectively; and in the Standard arm as: >16, >24 and >32 actuations of salbutamol, respectively. Whether a medical review was obtained within 48 h of an overuse episode was determined by review of data collected during the study by participant report. The mean (standard deviation) proportion of days in which high, marked and extreme beta-agonist overuse occurred without medical review within 48 h was 0·94 (0·20), 0·94(0·15) and 0·94(0·17), and 0·92(0·19), 0·90(0·26) and 0·94(0·15) for single maintenance and reliever therapy and Standard regimens, respectively. In at least 90% of days, in which beta-agonist overuse occurred, patients did not obtain medical review within 48 h of beta-agonist overuse, regardless of the magnitude of overuse or the inhaled corticosteroid/long-acting beta-agonist regimen.

Item Type: Article
RIS ID: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/860306
Schools/Departments: University of Nottingham, UK > Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences > School of Medicine > Division of Respiratory Medicine
Identification Number: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41533-017-0032-z
Depositing User: Claringburn, Tara
Date Deposited: 30 May 2017 11:06
Last Modified: 04 May 2020 18:45
URI: https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/id/eprint/43274

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