The effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on severe asthma care in Europe: will care change for good?

Katrien Eger; Dora Paroczai; Alison Bacon; Florence Schleich; Svetlana Sergejeva; Arnaud Bourdin; Isabelle Vachier; Eleftherios Zervas; Konstantinos Katsoulis; Dimosthenis Papapetrou; Konstantinos Kostikas; Zsuzsanna Csoma; Enrico Heffler; Giorgio Walter Canonica; Ineta Grisle; Kristina Bieksiene; Jolita Palacionyte; Anneke Ten Brinke; Simone Hashimoto; Frank W J M Smeenk; Gert-Jan Braunstahl; Simone van der Sar; Florin Mihălţan; Natalia Nenasheva; Marina Peredelskaya; Biljana Zvezdin; Ivan Čekerevac; Sanja Hromiš; Vojislav Ćupurdija; Zorica Lazic; Branislava Milenkovic; Sanja Dimic-Janjic; Valentyna Yasinska; Barbro Dahlén; Apostolos Bossios; Nikolaos Lazarinis; David Aronsson; Arne Egesten; Abul Kashem Mohammad Munir; Lars Ahlbeck; Christer Janson; Sabina Škrgat; Natalija Edelbaher; Joerg Leuppi; Fabienne Jaun; Jochen Rüdiger; Nikolay Pavlov; Pietro Gianella; Reta Fischer; Florian Charbonnier; Rekha Chaudhuri; Steven James Smith; Simon Doe; Michelle Fawdon; Matthew Masoli; Liam Heaney; Hans Michael Haitchi; Ramesh Kurukulaaratchy; Olivia Fulton; Betty Frankemölle; Toni Gibson; Karen Needham; Peter Howarth; Ratko Djukanovic; Elisabeth Bel; Michael Hyland

doi:10.1183/23120541.00065-2022

The effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on severe asthma care in Europe: will care change for good?

Katrien Eger, Dora Paroczai, Alison Bacon, Florence Schleich, Svetlana Sergejeva, Arnaud Bourdin, Isabelle Vachier, Eleftherios Zervas, Konstantinos Katsoulis, Dimosthenis Papapetrou, Konstantinos Kostikas, Zsuzsanna Csoma, Enrico Heffler, Giorgio Walter Canonica, Ineta Grisle, Kristina Bieksiene, Jolita Palacionyte, Anneke Ten Brinke, Simone Hashimoto, Frank W J M SmeenkGert-Jan Braunstahl, Simone van der Sar, Florin Mihălţan, Natalia Nenasheva, Marina Peredelskaya, Biljana Zvezdin, Ivan Čekerevac, Sanja Hromiš, Vojislav Ćupurdija, Zorica Lazic, Branislava Milenkovic, Sanja Dimic-Janjic, Valentyna Yasinska, Barbro Dahlén, Apostolos Bossios, Nikolaos Lazarinis, David Aronsson, Arne Egesten, Abul Kashem Mohammad Munir, Lars Ahlbeck, Christer Janson, Sabina Škrgat, Natalija Edelbaher, Joerg Leuppi, Fabienne Jaun, Jochen Rüdiger, Nikolay Pavlov, Pietro Gianella, Reta Fischer, Florian Charbonnier, Rekha Chaudhuri, Steven James Smith, Simon Doe, Michelle Fawdon, Matthew Masoli, Liam Heaney, Hans Michael Haitchi, Ramesh Kurukulaaratchy, Olivia Fulton, Betty Frankemölle, Toni Gibson, Karen Needham, Peter Howarth, Ratko Djukanovic, Elisabeth Bel, Michael Hyland

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Abstract

Background: The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has put pressure on healthcare services, forcing the reorganisation of traditional care pathways. We investigated how physicians taking care of severe asthma patients in Europe reorganised care, and how these changes affected patient satisfaction, asthma control and future care.

Methods: In this European-wide cross-sectional study, patient surveys were sent to patients with a physician-diagnosis of severe asthma, and physician surveys to severe asthma specialists between November 2020 and May 2021.

Results: 1101 patients and 268 physicians from 16 European countries contributed to the study. Common physician-reported changes in severe asthma care included use of video/phone consultations (46%), reduced availability of physicians (43%) and change to home-administered biologics (38%). Change to phone/video consultations was reported in 45% of patients, of whom 79% were satisfied or very satisfied with this change. Of 709 patients on biologics, 24% experienced changes in biologic care, of whom 92% were changed to home-administered biologics and of these 62% were satisfied or very satisfied with this change. Only 2% reported worsening asthma symptoms associated with changes in biologic care. Many physicians expect continued implementation of video/phone consultations (41%) and home administration of biologics (52%).

Conclusions: Change to video/phone consultations and home administration of biologics was common in severe asthma care during the COVID-19 pandemic and was associated with high satisfaction levels in most but not all cases. Many physicians expect these changes to continue in future severe asthma care, though satisfaction levels may change after the pandemic.

Original language	English
Journal	ERJ Open Research
Volume	8
Issue number	2
Early online date	16 May 2022
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1183/23120541.00065-2022
Publication status	Early online date - 16 May 2022

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The effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on severe asthma care in Europe: will care change for good?
Copyright 2022 the authors. This is an open access Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits use, distribution and reproduction for non-commercial purposes, provided the author and source are cited.
Final published version, 1.15 MBLicence: CC BY-NC

Cite this

Eger, K., Paroczai, D., Bacon, A., Schleich, F., Sergejeva, S., Bourdin, A., Vachier, I., Zervas, E., Katsoulis, K., Papapetrou, D., Kostikas, K., Csoma, Z., Heffler, E., Canonica, G. W., Grisle, I., Bieksiene, K., Palacionyte, J., Ten Brinke, A., Hashimoto, S., ... Hyland, M. (2022). The effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on severe asthma care in Europe: will care change for good? ERJ Open Research, 8(2). Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1183/23120541.00065-2022

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title = "The effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on severe asthma care in Europe: will care change for good?",

abstract = "Background: The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has put pressure on healthcare services, forcing the reorganisation of traditional care pathways. We investigated how physicians taking care of severe asthma patients in Europe reorganised care, and how these changes affected patient satisfaction, asthma control and future care.Methods: In this European-wide cross-sectional study, patient surveys were sent to patients with a physician-diagnosis of severe asthma, and physician surveys to severe asthma specialists between November 2020 and May 2021.Results: 1101 patients and 268 physicians from 16 European countries contributed to the study. Common physician-reported changes in severe asthma care included use of video/phone consultations (46%), reduced availability of physicians (43%) and change to home-administered biologics (38%). Change to phone/video consultations was reported in 45% of patients, of whom 79% were satisfied or very satisfied with this change. Of 709 patients on biologics, 24% experienced changes in biologic care, of whom 92% were changed to home-administered biologics and of these 62% were satisfied or very satisfied with this change. Only 2% reported worsening asthma symptoms associated with changes in biologic care. Many physicians expect continued implementation of video/phone consultations (41%) and home administration of biologics (52%).Conclusions: Change to video/phone consultations and home administration of biologics was common in severe asthma care during the COVID-19 pandemic and was associated with high satisfaction levels in most but not all cases. Many physicians expect these changes to continue in future severe asthma care, though satisfaction levels may change after the pandemic.",

author = "Katrien Eger and Dora Paroczai and Alison Bacon and Florence Schleich and Svetlana Sergejeva and Arnaud Bourdin and Isabelle Vachier and Eleftherios Zervas and Konstantinos Katsoulis and Dimosthenis Papapetrou and Konstantinos Kostikas and Zsuzsanna Csoma and Enrico Heffler and Canonica, {Giorgio Walter} and Ineta Grisle and Kristina Bieksiene and Jolita Palacionyte and {Ten Brinke}, Anneke and Simone Hashimoto and Smeenk, {Frank W J M} and Gert-Jan Braunstahl and {van der Sar}, Simone and Florin Mih{\u a}l{\c t}an and Natalia Nenasheva and Marina Peredelskaya and Biljana Zvezdin and Ivan {\v C}ekerevac and Sanja Hromi{\v s} and Vojislav {\'C}upurdija and Zorica Lazic and Branislava Milenkovic and Sanja Dimic-Janjic and Valentyna Yasinska and Barbro Dahl{\'e}n and Apostolos Bossios and Nikolaos Lazarinis and David Aronsson and Arne Egesten and Munir, {Abul Kashem Mohammad} and Lars Ahlbeck and Christer Janson and Sabina {\v S}krgat and Natalija Edelbaher and Joerg Leuppi and Fabienne Jaun and Jochen R{\"u}diger and Nikolay Pavlov and Pietro Gianella and Reta Fischer and Florian Charbonnier and Rekha Chaudhuri and Smith, {Steven James} and Simon Doe and Michelle Fawdon and Matthew Masoli and Liam Heaney and Haitchi, {Hans Michael} and Ramesh Kurukulaaratchy and Olivia Fulton and Betty Frankem{\"o}lle and Toni Gibson and Karen Needham and Peter Howarth and Ratko Djukanovic and Elisabeth Bel and Michael Hyland",

year = "2022",

month = may,

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doi = "10.1183/23120541.00065-2022",

language = "English",

volume = "8",

journal = "ERJ Open Research",

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publisher = "European Respiratory Society",

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Eger, K, Paroczai, D, Bacon, A, Schleich, F, Sergejeva, S, Bourdin, A, Vachier, I, Zervas, E, Katsoulis, K, Papapetrou, D, Kostikas, K, Csoma, Z, Heffler, E, Canonica, GW, Grisle, I, Bieksiene, K, Palacionyte, J, Ten Brinke, A, Hashimoto, S, Smeenk, FWJM, Braunstahl, G-J, van der Sar, S, Mihălţan, F, Nenasheva, N, Peredelskaya, M, Zvezdin, B, Čekerevac, I, Hromiš, S, Ćupurdija, V, Lazic, Z, Milenkovic, B, Dimic-Janjic, S, Yasinska, V, Dahlén, B, Bossios, A, Lazarinis, N, Aronsson, D, Egesten, A, Munir, AKM, Ahlbeck, L, Janson, C, Škrgat, S, Edelbaher, N, Leuppi, J, Jaun, F, Rüdiger, J, Pavlov, N, Gianella, P, Fischer, R, Charbonnier, F, Chaudhuri, R, Smith, SJ, Doe, S, Fawdon, M, Masoli, M, Heaney, L, Haitchi, HM, Kurukulaaratchy, R, Fulton, O, Frankemölle, B, Gibson, T, Needham, K, Howarth, P, Djukanovic, R, Bel, E & Hyland, M 2022, 'The effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on severe asthma care in Europe: will care change for good?', ERJ Open Research, vol. 8, no. 2. https://doi.org/10.1183/23120541.00065-2022