PharmacoEconomics & Outcomes News 408 - 19 Apr 2003

Poor use of antiasthmatics amongpaediatrics in Taiwan

Antiasthmatic medication practices among paediatricpatients with asthma in Taiwan "fall short of the goalsstated in international guidelines"; indeed, anti-inflammatory drugs are being underused, reportresearchers from that country.

They used computerised prescription data from theTaiwan Bureau of National Health Insurance to assessantiasthmatic drug use among 290 467 such patients(aged < 18 years) in the period February-June 1998.Oral β-adrenoceptor agonists, received by 69.43% ofpatients, were the most popular antiasthmatics,followed by isobutyl methylxanthines (40.24% ofpatients), oral corticosteroids (31.31%) and ketotifen(11.59%). Despite being internationally recommendedas first-line therapy, inhaled corticosteroids were usedby only 6.7% of patients; this subset of patients used anaverage 1.65 canisters each during the entire 5-monthstudy period, when "one cannister per month should benecessary", the researchers note. Sodium cromoglycate[cromolyn] was only used by 0.64% of patients.Chen C-Y, et al. The use of anti-asthmatic medications among pediatric patients inTaiwan. Pharmacoepidemiology and Drug Safety 12: 129-133, Mar2003 800938189

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PharmacoEconomics & Outcomes News 19 Apr 2003 No. 4081173-5503/10/0408-0001/$14.95 Adis © 2010 Springer International Publishing AG. All rights reserved