Diagnoses and prescription patterns among users of medications for obstructive airway diseases in Finland.

BACKGROUND: Asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) are common diseases mostly treated in primary care. However, the usage patterns of drugs for obstructive airway diseases (R03 drugs) at the national level are not known. OBJECTIVE: The aims of this study were to describe (1) for which diagnoses each class of R03 drugs were used, (2) the usage pattern of different drug classes for asthma and COPD, and (3) how often these medications were used without a diagnosis of asthma or COPD in Finland. METHODS: We sent questionnaires that included questions on physician-diagnosed asthma and COPD to a random sample of 2000 Finnish subjects who had been dispensed R03 medications in the previous year. Details of R03 medications dispensed were retrieved from national registries. RESULTS: Altogether, 803 subjects (40.6%) responded. Of these, 61.6% had asthma, 5.7% had both asthma and COPD, 5.1% had COPD, and 27.5% had neither asthma nor COPD. Among subjects with asthma or asthma and COPD, inhaled corticosteroids (ICS) were the most frequently dispensed class of drugs (93.7% and 97.8%, respectively). Even among subjects with COPD, ICS were dispensed as frequently (68.3%) as long-acting bronchodilators (70.7%). Antileukotrienes were dispensed mainly to asthmatic individuals only (18.4%) but far less frequently than ICS. The use of theophylline and roflumilast was rare. CONCLUSIONS: R03 medications are dispensed far more frequently for asthma than for COPD and often also for subjects without asthma or COPD. In line with guidelines, asthma is treated mainly with ICS, but there seems to be overuse of ICS for COPD.

Adherence to treatment guidelines and good asthma control in Finland.

Background: Asthma program in Finland decreased asthma-related mortality and expenses of care on national level, but there is lack of data on adherence to treatment guidelines and disease control on individual level. We aimed to assess adherence to guidelines and disease control among Finnish adult asthmatics. Methods: Questionnaires were sent in Finland to 2000 randomly selected recipients aged 18-80 years, who had bought medication for obstructive airways disease during the previous 12 months. The questionnaire included questions on asthma medication, exacerbations, self-management and follow-up. Asthma symptom control was assessed by the Asthma Control Test (ACT). Results: A high proportion (82.4%) of the 541 responders with physician-diagnosed asthma reported regular use of asthma medication and 97.1% of them used inhaled corticosteroids. Almost all (97.0%) of the asthmatics were taught how to use their inhaler and 78.4% had an asthma self-management plan, but only 35.7% reported regular annual follow-up visits. According to symptoms, 60.0% had their asthma well-controlled (ACT score ≥20). On the other hand, 29.2% had a course of oral corticosteroid and 21.8% had an asthma-related unscheduled health care visit during the previous year, but only 2.6% reported a hospitalization. Asthma control was better in those not using regular asthma medication. Conclusions: The guidelines are well adopted in Finnish adult asthma care except for regular follow-up visits. Majority of patients had good symptom control and hospitalizations were rare. Better asthma control among those not using regular asthma medication implies they are not undertreated but have a mild disease.

Age at asthma diagnosis and onset of symptoms among adults with allergic and non-allergic asthma.

Background: Childhood-onset allergic asthma is the best-known phenotype of asthma. Adult-onset asthma, also an important entity, is instead often shown to be more non-allergic. There is still a lack of studies concerning the association of allergies and age at asthma onset from childhood to late adulthood. The aim of the study was to assess the age at onset of asthma symptoms and age at asthma diagnosis among adults with allergic and non-allergic asthma. Methods: Questionnaires were sent to 2000 randomly selected Finnish adults aged 18-80 years who were dispensed medication for obstructive airway diseases during the previous year. The corrected sample size was 1978 subjects after exclusion of non-analysable data. The response rate was 40.6%. Self-reported doctor-diagnosed asthma was considered allergic if a concomitant self-reported doctor-diagnosed pollen and/or animal allergy was reported with asthma symptoms upon allergen exposure. Results: Of the 496 participants with asthma, 42.7% were considered to have allergic asthma. The median ages at asthma diagnosis and onset of asthma symptoms were 31 (IQR 17-46) and 20 (9.25-40) years in participants with allergic asthma and 49 (37.75-58) and 40.5 (30-50) years in participants with non-allergic asthma (p < 0.001), respectively. Of the participants with asthma diagnosed at ≥30 years of age, 18% of allergic and 7% of non-allergic participants reported having had asthma symptoms under 20 years of age. Conclusions: Both the onset of symptoms and diagnosis occurred at a younger age among adults with allergic asthma than among those with non-allergic asthma. Only a minority of adults with non-allergic asthma had already had symptoms in younghood.

Syntheses of Thiophene and Thiazole-Based Building Blocks and Their Utilization in the Syntheses of A-D-A Type Organic Semiconducting Materials with Dithienosilolo Central Unit.

Dithienosilole moiety is an electron donating unit, and it has been applied, for example, as a part of small molecular and polymeric electron donors in high performance organic photovoltaic cells. Herein, we report efficient synthetic routes to two symmetrical, dithienosilolo-central-unit-based A-D-A type organic semiconducting materials DTS(Th 2 FBTTh) 2 and DTS(ThFBTTh) 2 . Fine-tuned conditions in Suzuki-Miyaura couplings were tested and utilized. The effect of inserting additional hexylthiophene structures symmetrically into the material backbone was investigated, and it was noted that contrary to commonly accepted fact, the distance between electron donor and acceptor seems to play a bigger role in lowering the E gap value of the molecule than just extending the length of the conjugated backbone. We searched for precedent cases from the literature, and these are compared to our findings. The optical properties of the materials were characterized with UV-vis spectroscopy. Majority of the intermediate compounds along the way to final products were produced with excellent yields. Our results offer highly efficient routes to many heterocyclic structures but also give new insights into the design of organic semiconducting materials.