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“Oregon has been a leader in measuring our progress in treating asthma. We need systems that measure and support interventions in every clinic if we want to be successful in treating asthma”.
Nancy Clarke
Executive Director
Oregon Health Care
Quality Corporation
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Asthma Care in Oregon - What have we learned?
An inside look at data from 2001-2005
Appropriate Use of Asthma Medications
One indicator of appropriate asthma medication use at the population level is the percentage of people with persistent asthma who filled at least one prescription for an inhaled corticosteroid (ICS) in a year. As seen in Figure 4, 60-80% of people with persistent asthma received at least one inhaled corticosteroid in each year from 2001-2005. While the percentages have increased over the years, these numbers also indicate that 20-40% of people with persistent asthma didn’t fill even one prescription for an inhaled corticosteroid!
A second indicator of appropriate asthma medication use is the percentage of people with persistent asthma who filled more than six short-acting inhaled beta2-agonists (SABs) prescriptions in a year. People with asthma who fill this many SAB prescriptions likely have uncontrolled asthma. As depicted in Figure 5, the data for this measure indicate that a substantial percentage of people with asthma (18-42%, depending on type of insurance and year) do not have their asthma under control. Although the percentages have decreased for people with commercial insurance, they have remained stable for those insured by the OHP.
 
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