Highlights
- •Most Greek severe asthma patients were eligible for biologics by investigator's assessment and by label criteria.
- •Most patients had poor asthma control and markedly impaired health-related quality of life due to high symptom burden.
- •Over 80% of the patients received systemic corticosteroids but a minority of them reported chronic oral corticosteroid use.
- •Greek patients with severe asthma are more often never smokers.
Abstract
Background
Some patients with severe asthma do not achieve sufficient symptom control despite
guideline-based treatment, and therefore receive oral (OCS) and systemic corticosteroids
(SCS) on regular basis. The side effects of corticosteroid use negatively impact patients'
health-related quality of life (HRQoL) and increase the disease burden. Biologics
have shown promise in asthma therapy; however, identifying patients who might benefit
from biologic therapy is complex due to the heterogeneous pathophysiology of the disease.
Methods
The European, non-interventional, multicentre RECOGNISE study (NCT03629782) assessed
patient characteristics, asthma medication and control, HRQoL as assessed by St. George's
Respiratory Questionnaire (SGRQ), and health care resource use in patients with severe
asthma, as well as their eligibility for biologic treatment. Here, data from the Greek
cohort (N = 97) are reported.
Results
In Greece, patients with severe asthma were more often female (71%) and never smokers
(68%). 87% of patients were assessed as eligible for biologic treatment by investigator's
judgement (per label criteria: 76%). Most patients had been previously treated with
SCS (82% eligible vs 85% non-eligible), with OCS use being more common in non-eligible
patients (23.1% vs 11.9%). More eligible patients had poorly controlled asthma (76%
vs 54%), and more impaired HRQoL (mean total SGRQ score: 46% vs 39%); symptom burden
was significantly higher (mean symptom score: 60% vs. 44%, p: 0.0389).
Conclusions
A high proportion of Greek patients with severe asthma are eligible for biologic therapy;
however, individual risk factors and differences between asthma types must be considered
before the introduction of targeted therapy.
Keywords
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Article info
Publication history
Published online: February 23, 2023
Accepted:
February 21,
2023
Received in revised form:
February 19,
2023
Received:
December 15,
2022
Identification
Copyright
© 2023 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
