Factors leading to non compliance to standard treatment in asthma patients

Aim: to determine the factors leading to non-compliance to standard asthma treatment in patients presenting to jinnah hospital lahore. methods: using non probability consecutive sampling,diagnosed cases of asthma with noncompliance to standard treatment were enrolled. five questions regarding reasons for noncompliance was asked i.e.,forgetfulness,apparently well,fear of addiction,non-affordability (cost of drugs) and social stigma. results: two hundred and seventy patients with mean age 41±15.2 years with 59.6% male population were included. 123 individuals (45.6 %) attached social stigma to prescribed medicine and 83 individuals (30.7%) reported high cost cause of prescribed medicine as a factor for noncompliance 49 patients (18%) reported forgetfulness and being apparently well as frequent cause of noncompliance,52 individuals (19.3%) reported fear of addiction as frequent cause. statistically non-significant results were obtained for age and gender groups except for age above 40 years and social stigma. conclusion: forgetfulness,fear of addiction,being apparently well,social stigma and high cost are the factors for poor compliance. our physicians should take it into consideration when prescribing the medicines to asthmatics.