Medication adherence in patients with asthma using once-daily versus twice-daily ICS/LABAs

Objective: This real-world observational study compared medication adherence and persistence among patients with asthma receiving the once-daily inhaled corticosteroid/long-acting ?(2)-agonist (ICS/LABA) fluticasone furoate/vilanterol (FF/VI) versus the twice-daily ICS/LABAs budesonide/formoterol (B/F) and fluticasone propionate/salmeterol (FP/SAL). Methods: This retrospective cohort study conducted using IQVIA (TM) Health Plan Claims Data included patients with asthma ?18?years of age initiating ICS/LABA therapy with FF/VI, B/F, or FP/SAL between January 1, 2014 and June 30, 2016 (index date). Patients had ?12?months and ?3?months of continuous eligibility pre- and post-index date, respectively. Patients receiving FF/VI were separately matched 1:1 with patients receiving B/F or FP/SAL using propensity score matching (PSM) and multivariable regression to balance baseline covariates between cohorts. The primary endpoint was medication adherence, measured by proportion of days covered (PDC). Secondary endpoints included proportion of patients achieving PDC???0.5 and PDC???0.8 and persistence with index medication, measured by time to discontinuation (>45-day gap in therapy). Results: After PSM, 3,764 and 3,339 patients receiving FF/VI were matched with patients receiving B/F or FP/SAL, respectively. Mean PDC was significantly higher for FF/VI versus B/F (0.453 vs 0.345; adjusted p?

Automated summary

This study compared medication adherence and persistence among asthma patients receiving different ICS/LABA treatments. Results showed higher medication adherence with FF/VI compared to B/F or FP/SAL. Patients using FF/VI also had longer persistence with the index medication.