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Pharmacy fill patterns in young urban children with persistent asthma.

Mudd K, Bollinger ME, Hsu VD, Donithan M, Butz A

Division of Pediatric Allergy/Immunology, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland, USA.

Background. Medication adherence impacts healthcare utilization. Pharmacy records are useful to establish fill patterns. Objective. Use pharmacy records to establish medication patterns fill patterns for comparison to healthcare utilization. Methods. Pharmacy records of 175 children with persistent asthma were collected and compared to healthcare utilization. Results. Majority of subjects had significant healthcare utilization, low numbers of rescue medications, and poor controller medication fill rates. Those with more rescue medications had more healthcare utilization and more controller medications. Conclusions. Pharmacy fill patterns demonstrate few rescue and/or controller medication fills. Those with more rescue medications reported increased healthcare utilization despite controller medications.

Published 19 October 2006 in J Asthma, 43(8): 597-600.
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