Medication Adherence in People with Asthma: A Qualitative Systematic Review of Patient and Health Professional Perspectives

BACKGROUND: Increased medication adherence leads to better asthma control and health outcomes.

However, many studies have found that patient adherence to maintenance medication is poor.

AIM: We undertook a meta-synthesis of qualitative studies, to investigate asthma patient and healthcare professionals’ perspectives of medication adherence.

METHODS: This systematic review was reported by following the PRISMA guidelines.

The Joanna Briggs Institute (JBI) meta-aggregative approach was used for the qualitative synthesis.

The protocol was registered in PROSPERO (CRD42022346831).

RESULTS: In total, 12 articles were included in the review.

These articles reported findings from 433 participants in total, which included 315 patients and 118 healthcare professionals.

Four synthesised findings with sub-themes were identified from the reviewed studies.

These synthesised findings were described as: 1) The role of relationship and communication with/between Healthcare Professionals in medication adherence; 2) Insufficient information from Healthcare Professionals acting as a barrier for adherence; 3) How patient’s attitude/beliefs effect their adherence to medication; and 4) Patients’ personal behaviour and other relevant barriers.

CONCLUSION: The synthesized findings provide a strong evidence-base of patient and health professionals’ perspectives and behaviours toward medication adherence, which helps to identify and address non-adherence.

Healthcare providers can use these findings to support patients’ adherence to asthma medications.

The findings suggest that empowering people to make informed decisions around medication adherence rather than “adherence controlling” by health professionals is very important.

Effective dialogue and appropriate education are critical approaches to increase medication adherence.