COMPLIANCE WITH AN ALLERGEN IMMUNOTHERAPY REGIME

Background: Compliance with an allergy immunotherapy regimen is obviou sly the difference between a potentially successful or unsuccessful ou tcome. Objective: The purpose of this study was to assess retrospectiv ely compliance of patients receiving immunotherapy in a private allerg y practice. Methods: The study evaluated retrospectively patient compl iance with prescribed allergy injections for a private practice in Atl anta, Georgia. Patients who ordered allergy extract material for their injection immunotherapy program during an 18-month period served as t he index population for this study. For the purposes of this study, no ncompliance was defined as stopping the allergy injection program with out the approval of the prescribing physician. Part of this investigat ion was to determine whether there were compliance differences between those who received their allergy injections within the confines of th e clinic and those who received their injections at outside physician offices. A 12-month period of review was considered adequate to monito r compliance because of the 12-month expiration date placed on the all ergy extracts. Results: There was a noncompliance rate of 10.77% for t hose who received their injections within the clinic. This contrasted with the noncompliance rate in the remote population of 34.82%. The di fference between these two groups was statistically significant (P < . 01). There were no statistical differences with respect to sex or diag nostic category. Significant differences were found between age groups in those receiving injections within or outside the clinic. Conclusio ns: There is a much higher rate of noncompliance in those who receive their injections in facilities outside the allergist's office. This su ggests that to ensure better compliance either individuals should eith er be encouraged to receive their injections at the allergist's office , or better communications should be established between the referring allergist and the nonallergy physicians who are administering the inj ections.