A Pilot Study of the Effect of an Educational Web Application on Asthma Control and Medication Adherence

Background An Asthma Adherence Pathway (AAP) application, which is an Internet application that combines patient and clinician education strategies to promote adherence to asthma therapy, has been developed. Objective The primary objective of this pilot study was to evaluate the effectiveness of the AAP application with electronic adherence monitors on asthma control. Secondary objectives evaluated the effect of AAP and monitors on medication adherence, asthma symptoms, quality of life, psychosocial factors, and barriers to treatment. Methods Adult patients with asthma were randomly assigned either to intervention (n = 19) or control (n = 20) groups in this 3-month prospective study, and they completed the Asthma Control Questionnaire (ACQ). Intervention patients completed the AAP software and were given barrier-specific motivational interviewing adherence strategies and a SmartTrack device to monitor mometasone furoate/formoterol (MF/F) use. Clinicians in the interventional group received adherence management training. Interventional patients were given feedback regarding adherence findings at each visit. Treatment adherence was determined by the mean of 4 measures of doses taken over 3 months. Control patients were not monitored for MF/F adherence. Results The mean MF/F adherence in the intervention group was 81%. The intervention and control groups did not differ on the mean baseline ACQ. Thirteen intervention patients achieved the minimal important difference (defined as an improvement ≥0.5 units on the ACQ) compared with 6 control patients ( P  = .016). The intervention group showed greater improvement in the ACQ (0.75) than the control group (0.19) representing a moderate-to-large effect size of d  = 0.638. Conclusions The AAP was effective in promoting adherence and helped to improve asthma control. These findings provide preliminary validation of the AAP model.