ArticleBMC pulmonary medicine2024
Diagnoses and prescription patterns among users of medications for obstructive airway diseases in Finland.
Article in BMC pulmonary medicine, 2024. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 3 papers.
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3 citing papers in PubMed, 4 citations in OpenAlex.
- Adherence to asthma medication and asthma control in Finland.BMC pulmonary medicine · 2026Article
- Use of long-acting muscarinic antagonists for severe asthma: insights from clinicians in the SHARP network.Respiratory research · 2025Article
- Reduction in systemic glucocorticoid utilization among COPD patients with type 2 inflammation treated with biologics.BMC pulmonary medicine · 2025Article
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Authors and funding
5 authors at 3 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundAsthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) are common diseases mostly treated in primary care. However, the usage patterns of drugs for obstructive airway diseases (R03 drugs) at the national level are not known.
objectiveThe aims of this study were to describe (1) for which diagnoses each class of R03 drugs were used, (2) the usage pattern of different drug classes for asthma and COPD, and (3) how often these medications were used without a diagnosis of asthma or COPD in Finland.
methodsWe sent questionnaires that included questions on physician-diagnosed asthma and COPD to a random sample of 2000 Finnish subjects who had been dispensed R03 medications in the previous year. Details of R03 medications dispensed were retrieved from national registries.
resultsAltogether, 803 subjects (40.6%) responded. Of these, 61.6% had asthma, 5.7% had both asthma and COPD, 5.1% had COPD, and 27.5% had neither asthma nor COPD. Among subjects with asthma or asthma and COPD, inhaled corticosteroids (ICS) were the most frequently dispensed class of drugs (93.7% and 97.8%, respectively). Even among subjects with COPD, ICS were dispensed as frequently (68.3%) as long-acting bronchodilators (70.7%). Antileukotrienes were dispensed mainly to asthmatic individuals only (18.4%) but far less frequently than ICS. The use of theophylline and roflumilast was rare.
conclusionsR03 medications are dispensed far more frequently for asthma than for COPD and often also for subjects without asthma or COPD. In line with guidelines, asthma is treated mainly with ICS, but there seems to be overuse of ICS for COPD.
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