Abstract
Introduction: The emphasis of this study is to analyze if adult DMP participants, who take part for more than a decade, differ systematically from patients that participate for a shorter period than three years.
Methods: Medical records from general practitioners and pneumologists in the ambulatory setting from 2019 were used.
Results: In 2019 there were 62,827 adult asthma patients with a DMP participation for at least ten years whereas 52,374 patients take part for maximum three years.
Patients with a long participation interval are older than those with a recent DMP enrolment (60.1 ± 16.3 SD vs. 51.1 ± 17.1 SD). Further they are more often female (65.4 vs. 64.1%), smoke to a lesser extent (10.5 vs. 15.3%) and suffer more often from comorbidities (54.7 vs. 39.5%).
The long-term participants get to a greater extent asthma-specific medication prescribed [ICS (76.0 vs. 70.0%), LABA (65.9 vs. 62.2%), OCS (16.6 vs. 10.1%)].
There are also differences in reaching the targets in the program: e.g. long-term participants show more often an uncontrolled asthma (6.3 vs. 5.6%). There are advantages for long-term participants regarding partaking in a patient education (42.8 vs. 15.5%), receiving a written action plan (84.0 vs. 56.7%) and smoking cessation (54.8 vs. 29.9%).
Conclusion and discussion: The poorer asthma control and the higher medication among long-term participants might indicate that patients with a more severe course of disease remain in the program. The higher rates in patient education participation and smoking cessation might reveal a more compliant and highly motivated subgroup, that show consistently high values in the long-term evaluation.
Footnotes
Cite this article as: European Respiratory Journal 2021; 58: Suppl. 65, PA3712.
This abstract was presented at the 2021 ERS International Congress, in session “Prediction of exacerbations in patients with COPD”.
This is an ERS International Congress abstract. No full-text version is available. Further material to accompany this abstract may be available at www.ers-education.org (ERS member access only).
- Copyright ©the authors 2021