Utilization and Switching Patterns of Inhaled Corticosteroid/Long Acting Beta Agonist and Advair Diskus in Patients with Asthma or Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease: A Descriptive Analysis

This analysis examined the utilization of Advair and other (brand) inhaled corticosteroid (ICS)/long acting beta agonist (LABA) inhaled medications in patients with asthma or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). We divided this analysis into three parts:

• Report 1: We identified new users of ICS/LABA inhalers separately among insurance plan members with a history of asthma or of COPD in the Sentinel Distributed Database (SDD). Among these patients, we described baseline health characteristics and the length of database enrollment following new use.
• Report 2: We tabulated the duration of first use among new users of dry powder inhalers (DPI) and metered dose inhalers (MDI) containing ICS and LABA with asthma or COPD.
• Report 3: We examined switching patterns among users of Advair Diskus with asthma or COPD who switched from Advair Diskus to other DPI and MDI containing ICS and LABA.

The study period includes data from May 10, 2013 to September 30, 2019. We distributed this request to 16 Sentinel Data Partners on April 3, 2020.