(1287) Assessment of Pharmacist Interventions on Uncontrolled Asthma Patients Using the Asthma Impairment and Risk Questionnaire (AIRQ)

Objectives: The primary objective of this project is to determine the impact of pharmacist interventions in uncontrolled asthma patients through provider or specialist acceptance of recommendations. These interventions would include new prescriptions for maintenance inhalers or changes in asthma therapy. Additionally, this project would determine the impact of pharmacist interventions on patient adherence and outcomes by assessing the percent change in the proportion of days covered (PDC) score of rescue inhalers. Nearly 25 million people in the United States have asthma which results in 1.7 million emergency department visits each year and costs the health care system approximately $82 billion1. A key goal of managing asthma is reducing asthma-related impairment, managing symptoms, and reducing the risk of exacerbations. Tools such as the Asthma Control Test (ACT) and the Asthma Control Questionnaire (ACQ) have routinely been used to assess symptom management and asthma-related impairments. A newer questionnaire called the Asthma Impairment and Risk Questionnaire (AIRQ) asks similar questions to the ACQ and ACT in addition to assessing steroid use and emergency department visits or hospitalizations. These additional elements could better identify more patients that could be at risk of exacerbations. Previous studies have determined that the AIRQ is validated against the ACT, but there are currently no studies that evaluate the impact of the AIRQ on patient outcomes. Therefore, the secondary objective of this project is to quantify the number of patient interventions and referrals that result from the AIRQ compared to the ACT.

Methods: Retrospective data was collected from a regional division of a national chain of community-based pharmacies in the Portland, Oregon metro and Southwest Washington area between October 2023 to January 2024. Eligible patients were identified through internal pharmacy software clinical reporting tools by analyzing overutilization of their rescue inhaler based on fill history. AIRQ and ACT questionnaire data was collected via patient interviews to determine the need for pharmacist interventions. Interventions accepted by the patients’ providers were tracked through changes made to patients’ medications within their pharmacy software profiles. Student t-tests were utilized to assess the overall percent change of medication interventions made as well as to compare the number of interventions that result from the AIRQ and ACT.

Results: No preliminary results currently.

Conclusions: This study has the potential to validate the benefits of pharmacist led clinical services for people with asthma and the impact of medication optimization. Performing risk assessments for patients will allow pharmacists to practice at the top of their license, build trusting relationships with practitioners and improve patient clinical outcomes. Pharmacies are also likely to benefit by improving the new STAR measure of Optimal Asthma Control. Additionally, it would add data to support the Healthy People 2023 objective to decrease the number of people with asthma who report having asthma attacks in the past 12 months. For pharmacies considering implementation of a similar service, the analysis of AIRQ to ACT interventions may help determine which tool to utilize in practice.