Dec 31, 2024 Story by: Publisher
Research presented at the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists (ASHP) 2024 Midyear Clinical Meeting reveals that Black or African American patients with moderate to severe asthma are more likely to miss scheduled appointments than their White counterparts. The findings emphasize the significant role of pharmacists in addressing health disparities, particularly in chronic conditions like asthma.
Pharmacists are highly accessible healthcare providers and can play a vital role in managing chronic diseases. A study showed that patients visit their community pharmacies nearly twice as often as they visit their physicians, making pharmacists essential in ongoing care and medication management. Pharmacists not only educate patients about their medications but also provide information on asthma management, improving quality of life and reducing exacerbation risks. The Ohio Board of Pharmacy has highlighted the disparities in asthma care, pointing out that Black children had asthma-related hospitalizations and deaths at disproportionately higher rates compared to White children in 2021.
At the ASHP meeting, researchers explored clinical outcomes for patients with moderate to severe asthma during their first year of biologic therapy and examined air quality and clinic engagement by race. The study included 185 participants from January 2019 to June 2022, with a 12-month follow-up. Patients were matched with air quality data from the Environmental Protection Agency to assess the impact of environmental factors on asthma management.
Briana Hunt, a PharmD candidate at Belmont University, explained, “When they started their biologic therapy, that’s when we assessed our air quality indexes based on race, and then we followed them for 12 months.” The study found that while Black patients had more missed appointments, White patients were more likely to cancel. Specifically, 16% of appointments for Black patients resulted in no-shows, compared with just 4% for White patients. Conversely, 19% of appointments for White patients were canceled, while only 11% of Black patients canceled their appointments.
“This is important, because [with biologic therapies] you can’t self-inject at home,” Hunt said. “You have to go to a clinic, so you have to follow up to receive therapy. What we can do now…is we’re doing a lot of appointment confirmations, lots of reminders, which is great because we want to bridge that gap. Because what good is the medication if you can’t receive it?”
The study also assessed environmental air quality, noting that Black patients were exposed to higher levels of pollutants, including NO2 and PM2.5. Hunt suggested that clinicians could educate patients to use weather apps to check air quality, helping them make informed decisions about outdoor activities on high-pollution days.
Despite racial differences in appointment attendance and air quality exposure, the researchers found no significant differences in clinical outcomes, such as hospitalizations, urgent care visits, or asthma exacerbations, between Black and White patients following biologic therapy. “While this was not statistically significant based on race, that’s good because we can say that once a patient starts a biologic therapy, there’s benefit for all patients,” Hunt concluded. Source: Pharmacy Times
