Achievements and shortcomings of Finnish asthma care

Scandinavian Journal of Public Health
Pekka IkäheimoTimo Klaukka

Abstract

The Finnish National Asthma Programme was launched in 1994. A postal self-completion questionnaire study was undertaken to evaluate how the guideline is working in the Finnish healthcare system. A postal inquiry was sent to a random sample of 6,000 subjects aged 16+ years who were entitled to special reimbursement for anti-asthmatic medication and 4,657 subjects with self-reported asthma were included. The subjects comprised 38% men (n=1,781) and 62% women (n=2,876). In all, 62% of all the subjects and 78% of those with severe asthma had visited a doctor on account of asthma in the past 12 months. Some 83% of the respondents had a given physician who was responsible for treating their asthma, and 75% of these were under observation by a primary healthcare physician. Visits to asthma nurses were relatively rare. Inhaled glucocorticoids were used by 83% of the subjects, but short-acting beta-2-agonists were still the most commonly used asthma drug in monotherapy regardless of the severity of asthma. Inhaled glucocorticoids and a short-acting beta-2-agonist was the most frequent combination. Every tenth subject used this combination supplemented by a long-acting beta-2-agonist. Asthma care in Finland seems to be compatible with th...Continue Reading

References

Apr 1, 1996·The European Respiratory Journal·P J BarnesJ B Klim
Jun 14, 2000·Respiratory Medicine·R Dahl, L Bjermer
Sep 20, 2001·Thorax·T HaahtelaUNKNOWN Working Group of the Asthma Programme in Finland 1994-2004
Mar 29, 2002·The Annals of Pharmacotherapy·Theresa I ShiremanCharles J Moomaw

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Citations

Sep 14, 2007·Scandinavian Journal of Primary Health Care·Seija I AlanenMaritta A Välimäki
May 9, 2008·Journal of Evaluation in Clinical Practice·Seija AlanenMaritta Välimäki

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