Medication Identification Among Caregivers of Urban Children With Asthma

To determine caregiver ability to name their child's inhaled asthma medications, and examine whether perceived ease of remembering names is associated with accurate naming and asthma outcomes.

As part of the School-Based Telemedicine-Enhanced Asthma Management trial in Rochester, New York, we asked caregivers of children with persistent asthma to: 1) name their child's inhaled medications, and 2) indicate agreement with the statement, "it is easy to remember the names of my child's asthma medications." We limited analyses to subjects with 1 inhaled medication. Reported names were compared with canisters available during a home visit; complete matches were considered concordant. We compared ease of remembering names with concordance, asthma symptoms, and adherence using bivariate and multivariate analyses.

Overall, 141 caregivers (87%) had children with 1 inhaled medication (62% black race, 68% Medicaid). Most (74%) perceived it easy to remember medication names, yet only 46% reported names concordant with medications at home. Caregivers who did not easily remember medication names were less likely to concordantly name available medications (23% vs 54%; P = .002), and more likely to report that their child experienced >2 symptom days per week (33% vs 16%; P = .03), >2 symptom nights per month (31% vs 12%; P = .02), and missed >1 dose(s) of preventive medication in the previous 2 weeks (52% vs 28%; P = .03). Findings were consistent in multivariate regression analyses.

Caregivers of urban children with persistent asthma who considered medication names difficult to remember were less able to accurately name available medications, and reported worse control and medication adherence. Greater attention to medication identification might improve outcomes in this population.