Patients’ compliance to home nebulizer therapy for children’s asthma in China - CARE

An observational study to investigate the compliance of home nebulizer therapy among children aged 0-14 years old clinically diagnosed with asthma

Asthma is the most common chronic disease of childhood and the leading causes of childhood morbidity from chronic disease (GINA 2016). It is clear that inhaled corticosteroid (ICS) is foundation of asthma treatment and recommended both in Global Initiative for Asthma (GINA) and Chinese paediatric asthma diagnosis and treatment guideline. But the well-controlled rate of asthma was not ideal. National Parents of Asthmatic Children KAP Project Team (China) showed that 66.0% asthmatic children had asthma attacks in the past 12 months, 26.8% asthmatic children had visited the emergency department and 16.2% asthmatic children had been hospitalized. (Asthmatic Children KAP project team, 2013) .A few studies showed an increased risk of uncontrolled asthma or an asthma exacerbation in children with lower compliance (Jentzsch NS, 2012; Milgrom H, 1996). Poor compliance to inhaled corticosteroids may also contribute to poor asthma control level and asthma mortality (GINA 2016). Home nebulizer therapy has been recommended in GINA and Chinese Paediatric asthma diagnosis and treatment guideline. Compare to other inhalers, delivering ICS through nebulizer therapy need minimal patient’s cooperation and normal breathing pattern (Deborah Elliott, 2011), but there are no studies to show the compliance of home nebulizer therapy in Chinese clinical practice. So we aim to investigate the compliance to home nebulizer therapy, and try to explore the related risk factor with poor compliance in this study.