Methods: Face-to-face interviews of approximately 35 minutes’ duration were conducted with respondents drawn from a national probability sample. The survey was designed to include 2000 patients (400 patients/location) across countries in Latin America (Argentina, Brazil, Mexico, Venezuela) and the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico. Survey questions were organized under the topics of asthma burden; impact of asthma on patients’ activities, lifestyles, and work productivity; emotional burden; defining and characterizing symptoms; seasonal influences on symptoms; triggers; most bothersome symptoms; and patient perceptions about current levels of control.
Results: The results from the LA AIM survey will become available in November 2011. In the 2009 US AIM survey,1 2500 asthma patients aged ≥12 years (adults, n=2186, and parents of adolescent respondents) were interviewed by phone. Participants had a diagnosis of asthma, had taken asthma medication, or experienced an asthma attack within 12 months of the survey. Respondents in the patient sample were predominantly female (69%, n=1732), aged ≥35y (73%, n=1819), and had “not well-controlled” or “very poorly controlled” asthma (71%), using National Asthma Education Prevention Program guideline criteria. One in 4 respondents experienced symptom worsening at least weekly over the past 12 months: 11% reported asthma exacerbations most days; another 14% reported them at least twice weekly.
Conclusions: The US AIM survey provides a comprehensive depiction of the current state of asthma burden and patient perceptions in the United States. The LA AIM survey provides a view of the state of asthma across 5 distinct Latin American cultures.
1. Asthma Insight and Management Executive Summary. http://www.takingaimatasthma.com/pdf/executive-summary.pdf. Accessed June 23, 2011.