Barriers to medication adherence in asthma: The importance of culture and context

Significant disparities exist in asthma outcomes. Racial and ethnic minorities have lower controller medication adherence, which may contribute to differences in asthma morbidity between minority and non-minority groups. The objective of this review is to identify individual, patient-provider communication, and systems issues that contribute to this pattern of medication underuse and to discuss potential strategies for intervention.

Data were gathered from numerous sources, including reports of pharmacy and medical records, observational studies, and trials.

Studies analyzed factors contributing to patterns of asthma medication adherence that differ by race and ethnicity.

There is clear evidence of underuse of asthma controller medications among racial and ethnic minorities in prescription receipt, prescription initiation, and medication use once obtained. Individual factors such as medication beliefs and depressive symptoms play a role. Provider communication is also relevant, including limited discussion of complementary and alternative medicine use, difficulties communicating with patients and caregivers with limited English proficiency, and implicit biases regarding cultural differences. Systems issues (eg, insurance status, cost) and social context factors (eg, exposure to violence) also present challenges. Culturally informed strategies that capitalize on patient strengths and training providers in culturally informed communication strategies hold promise as intervention approaches.

Disparities in controller medication use are pervasive. Identifying the sources of these disparities is a critical step toward generating intervention approaches to enhance disease management among the groups that bear the greatest asthma burden.