Effects of switching inhaled medication from twice a day to once a day in patients with bronchial asthma

Aim: We aimed to determine whether or not switching inhaled medication from twice a day to once a day would improve adherence and symptoms in patients with bronchial asthma. Participants: Forty one patients (average age 48.7 years; 22 males, 19 females) with bronchial asthma who were prescribed with twice-daily combination drugs of inhaled corticosteroid (ICS)/long-acting beta-2 agonist (LABA) Methods: The twice-daily regimen was changed to a regimen comprising once-daily inhalation of fluticasone furoate (FF)/vilanterol (VI), and the effects were evaluated using the Adherence Starts with Knowledge-20 (ASK-20) and a questionnaire survey of FF/VI. Results: Among the 41 patients, 54% and 46% of them felt that the switch improved or did not change their symptoms, respectively. One patient described palpitations as a side effect, and 30 (73%) patients responded that FF/VI was easy to inhale but 3 (7%) patients felt it was difficult to inhale. Twenty one (51%), 2 (5%) and 8 (44%) patients inhaled the medication during the morning, midday and night, respectively. The rate of patients who sometimes forgot to use their medication fell to 17% according to scores of ≥ 4 points in response to question 1 of the ASK-20. Twenty four (80%) and 5 (17%) of 30 patients who scored ≥ 4 points in question 13 inhaled the same amount and more medication as before, respectively. The symptoms of 16 (53%) patients concurrently improved with better adherence. Conclusions: Switching from ICS/LABA to FF/VI improved symptoms and adherence in about 50% of the patients. Medication taken once a day can improve adherence in patients with bronchial asthma who feel that inhaling medication twice a day is inconvenient.