Factors related to poor adherence in Latvian asthma patients

The problem of nonadherence to therapy is a key reason of insufficient asthma control. Evaluating the beliefs about asthma medication, cognitive and emotional perceptions may help to identify patients with poor adherence to treatment in clinical practice which need additional attention in order to increase the likelihood of them taking their asthma medication according to the prescribed treatment protocol. The purpose of this study is to assess whether beliefs about asthma medication, cognitive and emotional factors are related to poor treatment adherence of asthma medication in a sample of asthma patients in Latvia.

Study subjects were asthma patients attending outpatient pulmonologist consultations in Latvia during September 2013 to December 2015. Beliefs about asthma medicine, cognitive and emotional factors related to asthma were determined in a cross-sectional, self-administered survey. The validated Beliefs about Medicines Questionnaire (BMQ) and the Brief Illness Perception Questionnaire (brief IPQ) were used. Treatment adherence was assessed using 5-item version of the Medication Adherence Reporting Scale (MARS). The total sample size was 352 patients. Logistic regression models were used to predict poor adherence to asthma treatment. The validity of each logistic regression model was assessed by the Hosmer/Lemeshow test. The main outcome measure was self-reported adherence to treatment.

The more the patients agreed with the statement "My future health depends on my asthma medication" the lower the possibility of poor adherence to asthma treatment (OR 0.42; 95% CI 0.24-0.74). The more concerned the patients were in regard to long-term effects of their medication (OR 2; 95% CI 1.22-3.27), the higher the probability of poor treatment adherence.

Screening asthma patients using the BMQ may help to identify those to benefit from interventions targeting their concerns and medication beliefs in order to improve adherence to asthma medication.