Challenges with present symptom control and risk reduction of future exacerbations in asthma: Indian patients' perspectives

Abstract

Asthma poses a serious burden and remains poorly understood and unrecognized, in lower- and middle-income countries such as India where healthcare resources are already constrained. Several misconceptions exist among Indian patients regarding asthma, including the nature of the disease. Poor adherence to maintenance treatment leads to inadequate control of underlying inflammation which, in turn, increases the chances of subsequent exacerbations. Effective management of asthma should aim to control symptoms, decrease risk of exacerbations, and minimize fixed airflow limitation and side effects. Patient education and counseling also play a key role. A control-based management of asthma is recommended with the adjustment of medications via a stepwise approach. A single inhaler for both maintenance and reliever therapy offers an approach that can provide rapid relief, simplify asthma therapy, and prevent asthma exacerbations, while decreasing the total corticosteroid dose taken over time. For this review, a literature search was conducted using PubMed and other library searches to collate data on the Indian patients' perspectives on the level of asthma control and the associated risk of asthma exacerbations. We discuss the perceptions among Indian asthma patients regarding the disease, the gaps in asthma management, the key aspects of Global Initiative for Asthma Guidelines, and the role of single inhaler for both maintenance and reliever therapy in the management of asthma.

Keywords

• global initiative for asthma
• maintenance
• single inhaler