Evaluation of Factors Contributed in Nonadherence to Medication Therapy in Children Asthma

Asthma is one of the most common chronic inflammatory disorders in children. Nonadherence to medical therapy is a major cause of poor clinical outcome the objective of this study was evaluating factors, which are resulted in nonadherence to medical therapy in children with asthma. In  this  descriptive study, 150 children with asthma  and  nonadherent  to  medication therapy were enrolled. General  information  and  probable  causes of  nonadherence  were recorded in self-report questionnaire and data were analyzed. In our study, 57.3% of children were male. Approximately 43%of children belonged to age group 6-9 years old. Prevalence of probable causes of nonadherence to treatment were concern about treatment  expenses(34.7%) ,fear of cardiac complications(34.7%), concern about drug dependency(38.7%), belief to growth inhibition(30.7%) and fear of osteopenia (32%). There was statistically significant reverse association between treatment with   multi- drug regimens and concern about bone  mineral abnormalities, cardiac complications and drug  dependency  (p=0.0001,  0.014  and  0.012  respectively). In  addition,  there  was  a significant association between mild asthma and fear about drug dependency (p=0.001). According to  our  results, factors  such  as  prolonged  duration  of  treatment,  various therapeutic regimens, and receiving multiple drugs before  diagnosis of  asthma pose  the highest frequencies for nonadherence.