Insight into patient dissatisfaction with asthma treatment

Background: Measures of patient satisfaction or dissatisfaction with treatm ent are increasingly being used as indicators of quality of care. As these measures become more widely used, it is important to know if patient dissat isfaction is associated with important processes or outcomes of medical car e. Methods: Survey of patient-reported asthma management issues using the Asth ma Therapy Assessment Questionnaire in a large health maintenance organizat ion in the Pacific Northwest. Associations between patient dissatisfaction with asthma treatment and patient-reported measures of asthma control, pati ent-provider communication, and belief in asthma medications (self-efficacy ) were examined. Results: Of the 5181 adult members with asthma enrolled in the health maint enance organization, 30% in- dicated dissatisfaction with current treatment . Dissatisfaction was higher among patients with a higher number of asthma control problems, patient-provider communication problems, or belief in med ication problems leg, failure to believe their medications are useful and i nability to take asthma medications as directed). The odds of dissatisfacti on with treatment were 2.8 (95% confidence interval [CI], 2.4-3.3; P<.001) for asthma control problems, 2.0 (95% CI, 1.6-2.6; P<.001) for communicatio n problems, and 8.0 (95% CI, 6.7-9.5; P<.001) for belief in medication prob lems compared with patients without these perceived problems. Conclusion: Patient dissatisfaction with treatment may be related to import ant asthma disease management issues.