Short-acting β2-agonists over-prescription in patients with asthma: an Indian subset analysis of international SABINA III study

Over-the-counter use of short-acting beta-2 agonists: a systematic review

“…It was noteworthy that the research design of all 18 studies was cross-sectional; Table 2 displays the study characteristics of all included articles. As seen in Additional file 1 Table S1, only three of the included studies were deemed to be of ‘good’ quality [ 4 , 46 , 50 ], with the remaining studies being of "fair" quality [ 9 , 35 , 38 , 39 , 45 , 47 , 49 ].…”

“…Number of participants: a total of 294 patients who met these criteria and were recruited from eight sites in Taiwan were included in the final analysis Used ≥ three SABA canisters per year 1.4% 0.7% purchased one to two SABA canisters, 0.7% purchased ≥ three SABA canisters (12 months prior to the study visit) Not stated Not stated [ 48 ] Pedrozo-Pupo et al Columbia An observational, cross-sectional study (SABINA III sub-analysis study) August 2019 to December 2019 Study targets: patients aged 12 years or older with a documented diagnosis of asthma, who had undergone at least three consultations with a healthcare professionals or practice and had medical records with at least 12 months of data prior to the study visit, and no other chronic respiratory disease other than asthma were enrolled. Number of participants: a total of 250 patients who met these criteria and were recruited from seven medical centers across Columbia were included in the study Used ≥ 3 SABA canisters per year 17.6% 43.2% purchased ≥ three SABA canisters (12 months prior to the study visit) Not stated Not stated [ 49 ] Modi et al India A multicenter, observational, and cross-sectional study (SABINA III sub-analysis study) August to December 2019 Study targets: adult and adolescent patients (aged ≥ 12 years) with a documented diagnosis of asthma and ≥ 3 consultations with the same healthcare practitioners during the 12 months preceding the study visit were included in the study. Number of participants: a total of 510 patients were included from 12 sites of India Used ≥ 3 SABA canisters per year 8.0% Among the 41 patients who purchased SABA over-the-counter, 38.9% (n = 16) had purchased ≥ three canisters in the 12 months preceding the study visit Not stated Not stated [ 50 ] Khattab et al Africa (Egypt, South Africa, and Kenya A cross-sectional, multi-country, multi-center observational study (SABINA III sub-study) Not stated Study targets: patients aged ≥ 12 years, with a documented physician diagnosis of asthma in their medical records, ≥ 3 prior...…”

Gaps in asthma diagnosis and treatment in low- and middle-income countries

“…71% prescriptions did have a combination of ICS and LABA, but most patients were also given unwarranted prescriptions of an average of 4.75 drugs consisting oral xanthines, oral steroids, antibiotics, antihistamines, H2 blockers or proton pump inhibitors without any history of concomitant gastroesophageal co-morbidity or infections or allergies ( 46 ). In a tertiary care hospital in Pune, India, SABAs were found to be over prescribed (≥3 canisters per year) in about one fourth of the patients ( 47 ). Similarly, in seven cities in Columbia, 43.2% patients used three or more than three canisters of SABA in a year and 25.2% were prescribed ≥10 canisters ( 48 ).…”