PhD project participating in the National Research School in General Medicine.
It is previously known that many asthma patients have a poor asthma control. To improve the asthma control and thus the quality of life for asthma patients we need more knowledge and better understanding on what factors influence the treatment given to the patients.
The overall purpose with this doctoral project is to identify factors related to the pharmacological treatment for asthma in adults. The aim of this project is to give a better knowledge on what factors influence the asthma treatment and the patients’ compliance to the given treatment.
Subproject 1-3 of the doctoral project will be based on data from the PRAXIS study, a longitudinal study involving seven Swedish regions; Västmanland, Sörmland, Örebro, Värmland, Dalarna, Gävleborg and Uppsala. Two cohorts of asthma patients, cohort 1 in 2005 with a follow up in 2012 and cohort 2 in 2014/2015, have answered questionnaires about asthma symptoms and how they take their medicine. Another follow up of these patient cohorts is planned to 2022 and a third cohort is supposed to be included to 2023. The patients participating in the study have also approved that data is collected from journal reviews and from the Swedish National Patient Register and the Swedish Prescribed Drug Register.
Subproject 4 will be based on data from the RHINE-study, a follow up of subjects who were previously included in the study ECRHS stage I, to which they were randomly selected from population registers. 7349 subjects from Uppsala, Umea and Gothenburg have answered questionnaires between 1999-2001 and have approved that data is collected from the Swedish Prescribed Drug Register. For a subset (n=258) of the participants with asthma we also have information from themselves about their asthma medication and results from allergy tests and spirometry.
This doctoral project aims to give a better knowledge on what factors are influencing asthma treatment and compliance to asthma treatment. This may contribute to an improvement in asthma control and an improved quality of life for patients with asthma.
Centre for Clinical Research, Uppsala University, Västmanland County Hospital, Västerås, Sweden and Department of Medical Sciences, Respiratory, Allergy and Sleep Research, Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden.
Christer Janson, professor, MD, PhD. Department of Medical Sciences, Respiratory, Allergy and Sleep Research, Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden.
