Medication, chronic illness and identity: The perspective of people with asthma

Patients' expectations of medicines – a review and qualitative synthesis

“…Fear of getting addicted, associations with illicit substance use 23,37 Hesitancy to be dependent on medicines for a normal life…”

“…Medicines for different conditions are seen as being of different value 38 Patients with the same condition express diametrically different views about the treatment: necessary or of very limited value; as something that helps to live normally or the only way to avoid death; as a choice based on experience or a resignation in lack of other options 23,25,37 Core health beliefs and notions of responsibility and morality influence decisions Patients' expectations of medicines, U Dohnhammar, J Reeve and T Walley shorter time-scale when determining whether a medicine has beneficial effects. Their acceptance of risks or symptoms in relation to sideeffects and the number of aspects weighted into decisions also make patients' decision making different from that stipulated by a biomedical model of health and illness.…”

“…Patients describe both their own views, those of family members and reports available in the public realm as negatively influencing usage of medicines. 23,37 The number of medicines used by one person is also reported as something that may be valued negatively and evoke criticism from others. Patients question the helpfulness of taking a large number of medicines every day 27 and may decline new suggested therapies on the basis that they are already using too many medicines.…”

Asthma: time for a change?

“…[3][4][5] Furthermore, the findings presented in my paper, 1 which suggest a differential effect of cost on adherence to different types of asthma medication, 3,4 are compatible with studies exploring patients' views of these and their differential effect on adherence -where inhaled corticosteroids (ICS) appear particularly affected. [6][7][8][9] Other studies have shown that lower use of ICS is associated with poor asthma control and an increased risk of asthma-related hospital admissions. 10,11 Yet further studies have shown that poor adherence to ICS for asthma (whether costrelated or not) does indeed have a negative impact on health outcomes.…”

Focusing on those in need: a symptom based outcome questionnaire for postal inwitation and audit in a primary care asthma clinic

“…13,14 This literature reminds us that patients view their asthma in a wider framework than do their medical attendants, their decision to seek help is made in the context of all of life's other priorities, and the clinic format is valued by some patients some of the time, but that practices need to provide and publicise a wide range of services. Our results indicated that often the questionnaire and letter combined were ineffective as a way of linking patient scored morbidity with a decision to seek help to improve this.…”