Health Care Delivery and QualityHow and by whom care is delivered influences anti-inflammatory use in asthma: Results of a national population survey☆,☆☆
Section snippets
Methods
The data for this study come from a national sample of adult patients and parents of children with current asthma. The methods for this study have been described in detail previously.14, 15 Eligible subjects were identified by means of telephone screening of a national random digit-dialing sample of 42,022 households with telephones from May to June 1998. Persons were classified as having current asthma if they had ever been given a diagnosis of asthma by a physician and if they either took
Results
Details of the demographic profile of the study subjects are given in Table I.
Variable and category N (unweighted) % (weighted) Age <6 y 202 8.1 6-15 y 519 20.7 16-34 y 728 29.3 ≥35 y 1058 41.8 Female sex 1554 61.7 Race White, non-Hispanic 1807 70.2 Black, non-Hispanic 323 12.7 Other, non-Hispanic 173 7.3 Hispanic 177 8.7 Marital status Partner 1510 60.3 Single, previously married 459 18.1 Single, never married 528 21.2 Education Less than high school 375 14.9 High school 838
Discussion
Our results from a representative national sample of persons with asthma indicates that how asthma care is organized and by whom it is delivered are important factors influencing appropriate use of anti-inflammatory medication. Our results suggest areas where opportunities exist to improve use of anti-inflammatory therapy.
How care is delivered and by whom influences anti-inflammatory medication use. Scheduling regular visits with a physician for asthma is independently associated with increases
Acknowledgements
We acknowledge the assistance of Patricia Vanderwolf and John Boyle of Schulman, Ronca & Bucuvalas with statistical analysis for this study.
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Supported by GlaxoSmithKline. Dr Adams is a recipient of the Thoracic Society of Australia and New Zealand/Allen and Hanbury's Respiratory Research Fellowship. Dr Fuhlbrigge is supported by a Mentored Clinical Scientist Development Award (1 KO8 HL03919-01) from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute.
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Reprint requests: Anne L. Fuhlbrigge, MD, MS, Channing Laboratory, Brigham and Women's Hospital, 181 Longwood Ave, Boston, MA 02115.