Patient-identified barriers to asthma treatment adherence: responses to interviews, focus groups, and questionnaires

This article reviews 32 patient-interview studies that revealed that the most common barriers to adherence revealed by patients included concerns about drug safety and cost and a belief that the patient's asthma was not severe enough to require daily treatment. Important but less commonly cited concerns included worry about dependence or diminished effectiveness with long-term use of the medication. Children and their parents expressed concerns about safety, dependence, peer stigmatization, and parent-child conflict over taking medication. Low-income and minority patients cited similar concerns and barriers that included cost, difficulty of obtaining medication, daily life hassles, and a general distrust of the medical establishment. The information obtained from patients' perspectives indicates the need to reappraise current strategies for the management of asthma, including a more flexible approach to the use of expert guidelines for the treatment of asthma.