Preschoolers still overprescribed costly asthma drugs
A recent study has been published in the MDPI discussion of prescription efficiay of asthma drugs to preschoolers.
The UNSW study assessed patterns of asthma FDC controller medicines dispensed to Australian children and adolescents, aged one to 18 years, between January 2013 and December 2018. A representative 10% sample of PBS dispensing data was used.
However, 88% of the FDC inhalers dispensed to children and adolescents were prescribed as first-line therapy, which is not recommended.
Clare Watson in the Medical Republic quotes “Clearly, there’s work to be done in addressing the inappropriate prescribing that is still occurring in children under five,” said Professor Adam Jaffe, a respiratory paediatrician at UNSW Medicine, member of the National Asthma Council Australia Guidelines Committee and co-author on the study.