Page 37 - Livre électronique du Congrès National de Pneumologie 2019

THE PREVALENCE OF SEVERE UNCONTROLLED ASTHMA IN A
TUNISIAN POPULATION.

C3

Introduction

The goals of asthma treatment are to achieve good symptom control and minimal exacerbations.
Some patients, despite being on maximal therapy with managed comorbidities remain uncontrolled.
They constitute cases of severe uncontrolled asthma and they may be eligible for biologic therapies.

Aim: to determine the prevalence of severe uncontrolled asthma in Tunisia.

Methods

This was a cross sectional study conducted in the department of physiology and Functional
explorations. 102 adult patients with asthma were enrolled. A medical questionnaire was used to
assess for comorbidities, medication (classified from step 1 to 5 according to GINA 2018), adherence
to treatment and symptom control level (according to GINA 2018).

Results

The sample was aged 44.3±13.3 years with 70% of females. The main comorbidities reported were
rhinitis (83.3%), conjunctivitis (42.2%), GERD (34.3%) and obesity (48%). Uncontrolled asthma was
found in 59.8% of the patients (n=61). They were so because they were untreated (9.8%) or difficult
to treat (45.1%) because of poor adherence to treatment (n=35) and unmanaged comorbidities
(n=11). Only five patients of the total sample (4.9%, IC95%[1-9.8]) were “authentic” uncontrolled
severe asthma.

Conclusion

Most of uncontrolled patients are difficult to treat ones. The prevalence of severe uncontrolled asthma
in Tunisia is only 4.9%, IC95% [1-9.8]. With a prevalence of less than 5%, uncontrolled severe asthma
is a rare phenotype and the reimbursement of novel targeted treatment should be facilitated in these
patients.