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Manon Belhassen,1 Marjorie Bérard,1 Gilles Devouassoux,2 Faustine Dalon,1 Jean Bousquet,3,4 Eric Van Ganse1,2,5 1Pelyon, Pharmacoepidemiology Lyon, Lyon, France; 2Respiratory Medicine, Croix Rousse Hospital, Lyon, France; 3MACVIA-France, Fondation Partenariale FMC VIA-LR, Montpellier, France; 4INSERM U 1168, VIMA, Ageing and Chronic Diseases Epidemiological and Public Health Approaches, Villejuif, France; 5Research on Health Care Performance RESHAPE, INSERM U1290, University Claude Bernard Lyon 1, Lyon, FranceCorrespondence: Eric Van Ganse, Respiratory Medicine, Croix Rousse Hospital, Lyon, France, Tel +33 472 071 730, Email eric.van-ganse@chu-lyon.frBackground: Appropriate use of effective treatments is required for satisfactory control of allergic symptoms. Coherent medical care -regular prescribing by the same Health Care Professionals- is a preliminary need.Objective: We investigated the numbers of distinct prescribers, the regularity of medical visits, and the agreement between prescriptions and associated dispensations in individual patients with perennial allergic rhinitis (PAR) and asthma.Methods: In primary care electronic health records (EHRs), a cohort of patients with PAR and asthma was identified. Individual EHRs were linked to corresponding claims recording all dispensations. Prescribing patterns were analyzed for the major treatment classes, and the dispensations linked to individual prescriptions were retrieved to compute the proportions of days covered (PDCs) for asthma and PAR therapy.Results: A total of 3654 patients were included, with 62% being female (mean age, 46.1 years). At inclusion, asthma control was not optimal in 51% of the patients and 48% had received oral corticosteroids. The mean interval between successive prescriptions varied between 93 (leukotriene receptor antagonists, LTRAs) and 103 (inhaled corticosteroids, ICS) days, and 97 (antihistamines, AHs) and 103 days (nasal corticosteroids, NCS). On average, individual prescriptions lead to 1.2, 1.5, 1.7 and 1.8 dispensations ... |