Abstract
Background: Asthma prevalence is increasing worldwide. Despite the availability of effective asthma treatment, medical adherence remains a challenge. Notably, the reasons for non-adherence among adolescents are less studied than among other age groups. Objective: This study aims to bridge this gap by assessing the views of young asthma patients concerning the factors influencing their adherence to asthma treatment, either enabling or hindering adherence.
Methods: A multi-national survey was conducted with 200 12-17 year olds in France, Germany, Spain and United Kingdom from July to October 2015. The survey included items on health status, asthma severity, attitude, treatment, role of physicians and health literacy.
Results: Germany demonstrated the highest degree of adherence. The study revealed no significant difference across age, gender and asthma severity. Remarkably, the study indicates that the variance of adherence can widely be explained by Attitude and Daily impact of asthma, in particular concerning six themes: Forgetfulness, Rebellion, Good days, Support, Careless, and Ignorant. Forgetfulness is significantly higher in France; Spain and the UK are comparable to Germany.
Health Literacy, as a driver of adherence, showed a weak but significant correlation with Attitude.
Conclusion: To improve adherence among adolescents the efficacy of today's Health Literacy should be improved to motivate a change of attitude to improve adherence. The adolescents' high trust in health professionals indicates that they can play an even stronger role in advising and mentoring young people in the medication management process.
- Copyright ©the authors 2016
