Rodríguez, IsabelLópez-Caro, Juan CarlosGonzález-Carranza, SilviaCerrato, Maria ElenaPrado, Maria del Mar deGómez-Molleda, FranciscaPinel, MargaritaSaiz, Maria TeresaFuentes, CarmenBarreiro Portela, EstherSantibáñez, Miguel2024-03-272024-03-272023Rodríguez I, López-Caro JC, Gonzalez-Carranza S, Cerrato ME, De Prado MM, Gomez-Molleda F, et al. Adherence to inhaled corticosteroids in patients with asthma prior to and during the COVID-19 pandemic. Sci Rep. 2023 Aug 11;13(1):13086. DOI: 10.1038/s41598-023-40213-62045-2322http://hdl.handle.net/10230/59593The electronic prescription refill rate (EPRR) of 183 consecutive patients was determined over a 19-month retrospective study period, divided into 7 months PRE (Sep-19 to Mar-20) and 12 months POST pandemic (Apr-20 to Mar-21), in order to compare adherence to inhaled corticosteroids (ICS) in patients with asthma prior to and during the COVID-19 pandemic. Before the pandemic (PRE), an average of 0.58 inhalers/month were refill from the pharmacy; [SD 0.33], very similar to the 0.59 inhalers/month; [SD 0.34] retrieved during the 12 subsequent months since the pandemic (POST) (p = 0.768). EPRR showed no differences (p = 0.784). When EPRR was dichotomous or ordinal categorised no differences were found either (p = 0.851 and 0.928), even when McNemar's test was used (p = 0.949), with prevalences of nonadherence (EPRR < 80%) of 57 and 58% respectively. Our results do not support increased adherence to inhaler treatment in terms of EPRR, comparing before and since COVID-19 pandemic. Compliance with prescription remains suboptimal.application/pdfeng© The Author(s) 2023. Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.info:eu-repo/semantics/articlehttp://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-023-40213-6DiseasesHealth careinfo:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess