Published on
Updated
Reading 3 mins.
A study published in the journal The Lancet Respiratory Medicine reveals that the use of a technological tool to measure the use of a bronchodilator inhaler (treatment in the event of an attack) could improve compliance and choice of treatments in people with asthma.
Asthma is a chronic disease that affects the lungs. It is due to a permanent inflammation of the bronchi. It is manifested by attacks during which the patient has difficulty breathing, wheezing, a dry cough with or without a feeling of tightness in the chest. Asthma is a disease that cannot be cured, but there are treatments that aim to relieve the symptoms of patients.
Better use of the inhaler to adjust the treatment?
The gold standard treatment for seizures is the bronchodilator inhaler. It contains drugs that help fight against the abnormal contraction of the muscles in the wall of the bronchi. People with asthma may also be prescribed a background treatment based on corticosteroids or antileukotrienes. Leukotrienes are powerful inflammatory mediators secreted in the bronchi in acute asthma and in chronic asthma. Effective, inhaled corticosteroids can however cause adverse effects in the short and long term and increase the risk of high blood pressure and cataracts.
About one in 10 people with asthma believe they cannot control their asthma symptoms with inhalers because they often have severe attacks or need stronger medications. But it is believed that in some of these cases patients may not be using the inhalers effectively (not correctly or not as frequently as they should).
To remedy this, they advocate the use of a technological tool to assess the use of an inhaler by an asthmatic person.
A simple digital device can better manage your asthma
Their work was carried out on 200 people suffering from severe asthma or having difficulty controlling their asthma. People eligible for the study had to be at least 18 years old, have been diagnosed with asthma on treatment with inhaled corticosteroids combined with sustained-release inhaled corticosteroids for at least 12 months.
Throughout the duration of the study (32 weeks), the participants were visited by three nurses and three doctors on several occasions. Visits during which their treatment could be adjusted.
The cohort was divided into two groups. The active group consisted of patients using an inhaler whose usage was recorded and transmitted to a clinical decision platform for healthcare providers. In the second group, the control group, the participants had to answer a questionnaire to describe their use of the inhaler.
Results :
- In the active group, 14% of participants had their treatment doses increased, this percentage rose to 32% among participants in the control group.
- In the active group, 31% of patients were able to reduce the doses of their treatment, compared to 18% in the control group.
- Finally, of the 102 patients in the active group, 11 required treatment with biologic drugs (a new, more expensive type of asthma drug). Of the 98 patients in the control group, 21 required treatment with biological drugs.
“This means digital monitoring technology can help doctors determine with more certainty which patients would benefit from switching to biologics, as opposed to continuing high-dose inhaled corticosteroid therapy alone.“says the authors.
These figures show that the technological tool has had a positive impact on compliance and the choice of treatments for asthmatic patients. It helped guide caregivers on patient care and give advice to asthma patients who were not using their inhaler correctly.