Despite the availability of clinical guidelines, underdiagnosis, undertreatment, and poor adherence are still significant concerns in AR therapeutic management. The study was done to investigate the clinical practice patterns and the prescribing behavior of Italian HCPs specialized in AR.
100 allergologists, 100 ENT specialists, and 150 GPs were recruited. The survey assessed: socio-demographic, work experience, monthly caseload, prescription drivers. Next, HCPs were invited to retrospectively recover patients’ clinical data to investigate the AR clinical characteristics, therapy management, prescription patterns, and patient adherence.
Allergologists visited more AR patients than ENTs, while GPs’ caseload was the lowest. Clinical information of 2823 patients was retrieved through a system from whom 1906 suffered from moderate/severe AR and 917 from mild AR. About one-third of mild patients had a discomfort score ≥ 7. Main prescription drivers were “effective on all symptoms” and “quick symptom relief”, whereas minor drivers were “affordable price” and “refundable”.
This study concluded through its findings that the therapeutic approach adopted by Italian physicians to cope with AR and shows that HCPs underestimated AR severity and had a non-realistic perception of patients’ adherence.
Reference: https://clinicalmolecularallergy.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12948-020-00135-4
