Physicians adjust single inhaler triple therapy (SITT) asthma treatment according to individual patient's conditions: EU LAMA survey

<bold>Background:</bold> Triple therapy (long acting beta-2 agonist; LABA + long acting muscarinic antagonist; LAMA + inhaled corticosteroids; ICS) is widely recommended in asthma treatment, but little is known about physicians’ opinions and behaviors on their real-life usage. <bold>Aims and objectives:</bold> The objective of the study was to assess physicians' perceptions of the intensification of treatment regimes in not well-controlled asthma including ICS, LABA, LAMA, biologics, and oral corticosteroids (OCS). <bold>Methods:</bold> A survey of 19 questions was distributed in Poland, Greece, Sweden, Slovenia, and Austria on the CATI-system platform (http://www.cati-system.pl/) using an electronic CAWI (Computer Assisted Web Interviews) method. Pulmonologists, allergologists, general practitioners, and internal medicine specialists were invited. <bold>Results:</bold> 630 surveys were completed in Poland (57.6%), Greece (27%), Sweden (6.3%), Slovenia (5.4%) and Austria (3.7%). The question: When would you recommend a medium dose (MD) ICS/LABA/LAMA as SITT?” physicians responded (%) in the following order: <table-wrap><object-id>erj;66/suppl_69/PA1418/TB1</object-id><object-id>T1</object-id><object-id>TB1</object-id><table><colgroup><col></col><col></col><col></col><col></col><col></col><col></col></colgroup><tbody><tr><td>Question/country (%)</td><td>Poland</td><td>Greece</td><td>Austria</td><td>Sweden</td><td>Slovenia</td></tr><tr><td>I will adjust the dose of triple therapy to the current patient’s condition</td><td>77</td><td>73</td><td>70</td><td>55</td><td>74</td></tr><tr><td>In a situation when I use the medium dose of ICS-LABA</td><td>43</td><td>54</td><td>44</td><td>50</td><td>50</td></tr><tr><td>Regardless of the treatment used so far I will always start with a medium dose ICS in triple therapy</td><td>14</td><td>25</td><td>13</td><td>30</td><td>9</td></tr><tr><td>I don’t recommend triple therapy in asthma</td><td>2</td><td>2</td><td>4</td><td>10</td><td>6</td></tr></tbody></table></table-wrap> <bold>Conclusions:</bold> Therapy individualization with SITT is a widely used approach to treat asthma patients, still, up to 10% of physicians do not recommend SITT in asthma management, despite GINA guidelines.