Adherence to Asthma Medication in Young People with PSA

  • Research type

    Research Study

  • Full title

    Adherence to Inhaled Corticosteroids in Young People with Problematic Severe Asthma

  • IRAS ID

    188453

  • Contact name

    Christina J C Pearce

  • Contact email

    christina.pearce.15@ucl.ac.uk

  • Sponsor organisation

    University College London

  • Duration of Study in the UK

    0 years, 4 months, 1 days

  • Research summary

    Many children with severe asthma experience poor asthma control. For children this may mean that they need to spend more time in hospital or that they aren’t able to take part in their daily activities in ways they would like to. Researchers at The Royal Brompton Hospital have found out that for almost half of the children with problematic severe asthma (PSA), attending their clinics, experiencing poor control was linked to a lack of preventer inhaler use (nonadherence).
    We want to help improve the use of preventer inhalers and we believe it is important to find out about young people’s experiences. We would like to find out more from young people about different barriers or reasons for the lack of preventer inhalers so that we can develop an intervention to help young people to get the best from their treatment by improving their asthma inhaler usage. We think it is important to take a “no-blame approach” and begin with an understanding of how children view their asthma, its treatment and how this affects their choices and ability to take their inhalers.
    The researcher will begin with a detailed study of patient’s beliefs and practicalities related to asthma treatment. Patients aged 12-17 years old who have been diagnosed with problematic severe asthma at the Royal Brompton hospital will be asked to take-part. Participants will be chosen based on their previously collected medication use which has been recorded using an electronic monitoring inhaler devise (a SmartInhaler). This data shows whether or not the person takes their medicine regularly and also when they take it. These medicine use patterns will be used to select up to thirty patients to take-part in the interview. The interviews will be completed at the hospital with patients from the regular severe asthma clinics and will last approximately 30-45 minutes.

  • REC name

    North of Scotland Research Ethics Committee 2

  • REC reference

    16/NS/0082

  • Date of REC Opinion

    16 Aug 2016

  • REC opinion

    Further Information Favourable Opinion