Causes of SLIT discontinuation and strategies to improve the adherence: a pragmatic approach

Sublingual immunotherapy (SLIT) is often discontinued, and many patients do not renew the prescription. We evaluated the reasons for discontinuation and set up an educational/follow‐up plan to improve the adherence. In a first phase, the adherence at 4 months was directly assessed. Based on those re...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Allergy (Copenhagen) 2013-09, Vol.68 (9), p.1193-1195
Main Authors: Savi, E., Peveri, S., Senna, G., Passalacqua, G.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
adherence
Adolescent
Adult
Asthma - immunology
Asthma - therapy
Child
Child, Preschool
Compliance
Desensitization, Immunologic
discontinuation
Female
follow‐up
Humans
Immunotherapy
Male
Medication Adherence
Middle Aged
Rhinitis, Allergic, Seasonal - immunology
Rhinitis, Allergic, Seasonal - therapy
sublingual immunotherapy
Sublingual Immunotherapy - adverse effects
Young Adult
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Summary:Sublingual immunotherapy (SLIT) is often discontinued, and many patients do not renew the prescription. We evaluated the reasons for discontinuation and set up an educational/follow‐up plan to improve the adherence. In a first phase, the adherence at 4 months was directly assessed. Based on those results, an action plan (education, frequent contacts, and strictly scheduled visits) was developed and tested in other patients. A group of matched patients did not undergo the follow‐up plan (controls). In the first phase, involving 252 subjects, at 4 months, there were 30% dropouts, mainly due to side‐effects. In the second phase, 149 patients underwent education/follow‐up and 90 received no intervention. In the first group, discontinuations at 4 months were 5%, vs 18% in the controls (P = 0.01). After one year, 12% of patients were lost in the first group and 35% in the control group (P 
ISSN:0105-4538
1398-9995
DOI:10.1111/all.12198