Burden of illness among patients with asthma prescribed inhaled corticosteroids/long-acting β₂-agonists

Inhaled corticosteroids (ICS) plus long-acting β₂-agonists (LABA) are recommended for maintenance-only or maintenance and reliever therapy (MART) in patients with asthma. However, real-world data on ICS/LABA as maintenance-only or MART are limited. This study characterized clinical, economic, and humanistic burdens of asthma in Canada, China, Europe, Japan, and the US, using data collected from patients and physicians via a cross-sectional survey (Asthma Disease Specific Programme). Patients were ≥18 years of age with physician-confirmed asthma and receiving fixed-dose ICS/LABA for ≥3 months. Mean physician-reported symptom-free days over the past 30 days ranged from 10.1-20.6 days, and 31.5-34.6% of ICS/LABA users self-reported not well-controlled asthma. SABA co-prescription was reported in 8.8-67.8% of patients. These findings highlight the continued disease burden among ICS/LABA users, with the high level of SABA co-prescription indicating potentially inappropriate prescribing of ICS/LABA as MART or detrimental reliance on SABA medication in addition to MART.