Beliefs surrounding the use of inhaled asthma medication in The Gambia: a qualitative study of asthma patients and healthcare workers

Abstract

Asthma-related mortality is high in low- and middle-income countries. Little is known about public perceptions of inhaled medicines. We conducted semi-structured interviews with asthma patients and healthcare workers at three secondary care facilities in The Gambia, between August and November 2022. Thematic analysis was used to interpret these data. A total of 20 patients and 15 healthcare workers were interviewed. Both groups noted limited access to inhalers was an issue resulting in continued use of oral medications. Some patients recognised the benefits of inhalers, yet beliefs that inhalers were dangerous were common. Reliance on oral short-acting beta agonists meant patients saw asthma as a recurrent acute condition resulting in an emphasis on hospital management with little awareness of inhaled preventative medicines. Increasing access to inhaled medicines has the potential to reduce costly avoidable admissions, but socio-cultural factors, in addition to medication supply, need addressing.

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Item Type:	Article
Authors/Creators:	Jayasooriya, S. Inoue, M. Allen, H. Bojang, M. Ceesay, A. Touray, S. Mortimer, K. Cooper, R. https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5110-0384 Balen, J.
Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information:	© The Author(s) 2024. Open Access: This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
Dates:	Published: 17 October 2024 Published (online): 17 October 2024 Accepted: 1 October 2024
Institution:	The University of Sheffield
Academic Units:	The University of Sheffield > Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health (Sheffield) > School of Medicine and Population Health
Depositing User:	Symplectic Sheffield
Date Deposited:	18 Oct 2024 13:49
Last Modified:	20 Oct 2024 01:46
Status:	Published
Publisher:	Nature Portfolio
Refereed:	Yes
Identification Number:	10.1038/s41533-024-00390-x
Related URLs:	Author
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID):	oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:218579

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Beliefs surrounding the use of inhaled asthma medication in The Gambia: a qualitative study of asthma patients and healthcare workers

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