Patient-reported side effects, concerns and adherence to corticosteroid treatment for asthma, and comparison with physician estimates of side-effect prevalence: a UK-wide, cross-sectional study
Open accessAbstract
Background: Non-adherence to corticosteroid treatment has been shown to reduce treatment efficacy, thus compromising asthma control. Aims: To examine the experiences of treatment side effects, treatment concerns and adherence to inhaled (ICS) and oral corticosteroids (OCS) among people with asthma and to identify the degree of concordance between clinician estimates of side effects and the prevalence reported by patients. Methods: Asthma UK members were sent validated questionnaires assessing treatment concerns, experiences of side effects and adherence. Questionnaires measuring clinicians’ estimates of the prevalence of corticosteroid side effects were completed online. Results: Completed questionnaires were returned by 1,524 people taking ICS, 233 taking OCS and 244 clinicians (67% of clinicians were primary care nurses). Among people with asthma, 64% of those taking ICS and 88% of those taking OCS reported ⩾1 side effect. People reporting high adherence to ICS (t=−3.09, P<0.005) and those reporting low adherence to OCS (t=1.86, P<0.05; one-tailed test) reported more side effects. There was a disparity between clinicians’ estimates of the frequency of side effects and the frequency reported by people with asthma: e.g., although 46% of people taking ICS reported sore throat, clinicians estimated that this figure would be 10%. Patients who reported side effects had stronger concerns about both ICS (r=0.46, P<0.0001) and OCS (r=0.50, P<0.0001). Concerns about corticosteroids were associated with low adherence to ICS (t=6.90, P<0.0001) and OCS (t=1.71; P<0.05; one-tailed test). Conclusions: An unexpectedly large proportion of people with asthma experienced side effects and had strong concerns about their treatment, which compromised adherence. These findings have implications for the design of interventions to optimise asthma control through improved adherence.
The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.
Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Claims the paper makes
The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.
Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
Corticosteroids and bronchodilators reduce asthma symptoms at cost of long-lasting side effects.
“Corticosteroids and bronchodilators are the most widely used therapies for asthma and reduce disease symptoms at the cost of long-lasting side effects.166”
From Targeted therapy in chronic diseases using nanomaterial-based drug delivery vehicles (2019) · cites this paper as [166]
Self-check
Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.
The self-check needs the paper’s full text.
The citation lists haven’t been fetched yet
References 45 · Cited by 169
Research works printed but not linked: 1
- Society BT. British guideline on the management of asthma: revised edition 2009. http://www.brit-thoracic.org.uk/ClinicalInformation/Asthma/AsthmaGuidelines/tabid/83/Default.aspx ] webcite.
- Authors
- Cooper, V., Metcalf, L., Versnel, J., Upton, J., Walker, S., & Horne, R.
- Affiliations
- UCL School of Pharmacy (GB)
- Asthma UK (GB)
- Venue
- npj Primary Care Respiratory Medicine
- Published
- 2015-07-09
- Volume
- 25
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 15026-15026
- ISSN
- 2055-1010 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC4497315
- OpenAlex
- W751328058
- Cited by
- 169
- References
- 45
- Citations by year
- 2026: 6 · 2025: 14 · 2024: 11 · 2023: 11 · 2022: 20 · 2021: 16 · 2020: 23 · 2019: 24 · 2018: 8 · 2017: 17 · 2016: 17 · 2015: 1
- FWCI
- 10.56
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Locations
- npj Primary Care Respiratory Medicine (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- UCL Discovery (University College London) (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- GlaxoSmithKline
- National Institute for Health and Care Research (NF-SI-0510-10197)
- Asthma and Lung UK
- Asthma UK Centre for Applied Research
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Physiology › Asthma and respiratory diseases
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Family Practice › Medication Adherence and Compliance
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolism › Adrenal Hormones and Disorders
- Keywords
- asthma, corticosteroid adverse effects, medication adherence, inhaled corticosteroids, oral corticosteroids, patient concerns, patient-reported outcomes, sore throat, asthma control
- MeSH terms
- Administration, Inhalation, Administration, Oral, Adrenal Cortex Hormones, Adult, Aged, Asthma, Mental Disorders, Candidiasis, Oral, Contusions, Cross-Sectional Studies, Female, United Kingdom, Humans, Male, Middle Aged, Stomatognathic Diseases, Pharyngitis, Primary Health Care, Surveys and Questionnaires, Weight Gain, Prevalence, Medication Adherence, Self Report, Physicians, Primary Care, Primary Care Nursing, Drug-Related Side Effects and Adverse Reactions
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
