Asthma in Italy according to patients and physicians: comments on data collected in the multi-country study APPaRENT2

APPaRENT2 was a multi-country, cross-sectional, online survey of patients with asthma and physicians conducted in five countries (Argentina, Brazil, France, Mexico, and Italy), aimed at assessing physicians’ and patients’ preferred treatment strategies and goals. Education level, age, and place of residence differed between European and Latin American patients; furthermore, most Italian doctors worked within the Public Health Service. For the purpose of identifying the critical issues in the management of asthma in Italy, the data were analysed in greater detail, comparing those collected in Italy with those from Latin American countries and those provided by Italian patients and doctors. The data are reported as frequencies or means. The differences found in comparing data were not analysed for statistical significance, given the absence of any a priori hypothesis in the original paper. The Italian results were consistently within the range of the Latin American countries’ results. In Italy, despite the physicians’ prioritization of symptom control, many patients had poor asthma control but gave a surprisingly optimistic evaluation of their disease, given the high frequency of symptoms and limitations in everyday life. Physicians and patients had quite different evaluations of symptoms and outcomes of asthma. Finally, the combination of ICS/LABA with SABA as needed was the preferred treatment compared with the maintenance and reliever therapy (MART) strategy, suggested as preferential in the Global Initiative for Asthma (GINA) document. In conclusion, the absence of shared assessments and expectations between doctors and patients appears to be the primary issue to address in order to improve asthma treatment in Italy.