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Abstract: Background: Treatment non‐adherence is a challenge to achieve asthma control. However, few prospective studies were done for exploring asthma patient adherence in real world. Objectives: To evaluate treatment adherence and causes of non‐adherence in a large asthma Chinese population. To analyze newly‐diagnosed patients' adherence first time. Methods: About 1582 asthma patients' data were collected from 12 study centers in China from February, 2012 to October, 2012. Disease and treatment information of subjects were collected were at first clinic visit, at 4, 12, and 24 weeks after that, follow‐up phone calls were carried out for recording subjects' treatment adherence based on their self‐reports. Subjects who reported non‐adherence were additionally asked to choose the primary non‐adherence cause from a list of nine potential causes. Results: Treatment adherence rate of all subjects markedly decreased from 83.3% at week 4 to 42.0% at week 24 after the first clinic visit. Significantly, at week 24, good treatment adherence rate in newly‐diagnosed patients was lower than those patients with asthma history (22.9% vs. 63.9%, P < .001). Newly‐diagnosed patients were three times more likely to become non‐adherence than those patients with asthma history. Female patients had lower treatment adherence rate than male patients (38.3% vs. 45.6%, P = .006). Subjects in 30‐39 year age group had the worst treatment adherence (27.3%). The most commonly chosen cause for non‐adherence was “relief of symptoms after short‐term controller medication use” (43.8%). Conclusions: Asthma patients' treatment adherence could be improved by improving patient education, doctor/patient partnership, and level of medical service in Chinese population. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Humidity is commonly associated with increased airway hyperresponsiveness in asthma. Objective: To examine mold sensitization in patients with allergic asthma or allergic rhinitis and self-reports of humidity as exacerbating factors of clinical symptoms. Methods: A retrospective, cross-sectional study at a University hospital outpatient allergy and asthma clinic was performed. A total of 106 patients with either allergic asthma or allergic rhinitis completed standard prick-puncture skin testing with 17 allergens and controls and completed standardized forms addressing trigger factors for clinical symptoms. Results: Allergic asthmatics sensitized to Cladosporium were more likely to have a more severe asthma severity class (odds ratio = 4.26, confidence interval = 1.30-16.93). Sensitization to Alternaria, Cladosporium, Helminthosporium, Aspergillus and Dermatophagoides pteronyssinus in asthma was associated with higher likelihood for previous hospitalization, while sensitization to Cladosporium, Helminthosporium, Aspergillus, Dermatophagoides pteronyssinus and cockroach in asthma was associated with higher likelihood of having reduced pulmonary function based on forced expiratory volume in 1 s. Furthermore, allergic asthmatics more commonly reported humidity as an exacerbating factor of symptoms than did patients only with allergic rhinitis (68.42% vs 42.86%, respectively; P < 0.05). Conclusion: Mold sensitization is highly associated with more severe asthma, while humidity is more of an exacerbating factor in patients with allergic asthma as compared with allergic rhinitis alone. Further delineation between mold sensitization and humidity is needed to determine whether these are independent factors in asthma. Please cite this paper as: Hayes D Jr, Jhaveri MA, Mannino DM, Strawbridge H and Temprano J. The effect of mold sensitization and humidity upon allergic asthma. Clin Respir J 2013; 7: 135-144. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]