Findings from a Propeller Health study recently published in The Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology demonstrated that patients with asthma who are prescribed once-daily dosing schedules are more likely to adhere to their controller medications than those with twice-daily prescriptions.
Medication adherence data was collected from 6,410 patients who used the Propeller digital health platform. The platform’s inhaler sensors attach to a patient’s inhaler medications and passively capture the date and time of controller medication use.
Following a three-month study period, we found that on average, once-daily users had significantly higher daily adherence than twice-daily users. This pattern persisted even when comparing adherence rates across age groups, with the exception of 4-11 year olds, who may benefit from additional parental oversight.
The percentage of patients who achieved greater than 80% adherence was also significantly higher for once-daily users compared to twice-daily users, with once-daily users being 1.4 times as likely to achieve high medication adherence as twice-daily users.
What might this mean for patients and clinicians who use digital health tools to manage or monitor asthma? While not all patients with asthma may benefit from a simplified dosing schedule, this study highlights the value in utilizing objective medication adherence data to evaluate dose frequency and treatment plans together. Without objective data, clinicians typically have to rely on patient recall or manual tracking before deciding how best to adjust regimens.
This research contributes to a growing body of evidence that digital health platforms can be effective tools for tracking patient medication adherence and providing clear insights for clinicians to make informed care decisions, particularly around medication optimization – a critical component of asthma management.
To learn more about how Propeller’s objective insights can help you make more informed care decisions, please contact partnerships@propellerhealth.com.