{"title":"Physicians' attitudes towards step-down asthma treatment in Turkey: a nationwide perspective.","authors":"Müge Erbay, Olcay Ayçiçek, Deha Çebi Öztürk","doi":"10.1080/19932820.2025.2500192","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The cornerstone of asthma management is the stepwise approach recommended by both national and international guidelines. In this study, we aim to investigate physicians' attitudes and approaches towards step-down treatment in asthma management in Turkey. In this cross-sectional study, questionnaire-based data were gathered from pulmonologists, immunology and allergy specialists and immunology and allergy fellows in November-December 2024. Of the 225 physicians, the median years of service in their speciality was 5 (min1-max51) years. Nearly 35% of survey participants rarely step down asthma medication (12.9% and 52.4% of participants always and frequently, respectively). The two most selected barriers were 'I am afraid the patient will get worse' (50.9%) and 'patients don't want to' (29.9%). Participants whose primary concern regarding step-down asthma treatment was fear of patient deterioration were found to use step-down approaches less frequently (66.7%, <i>p</i> < 0.001). Working in educational and research hospitals, the fear that the patient may worsen, and infrequent adherence to guideline updates were significantly associated with the rare implementation of step-down treatment in asthma management. Our study identified that the fear of potential disease worsening and infrequent adherence to updated guidelines were significantly associated with the limited implementation of step-down treatment in asthma management.</p>","PeriodicalId":49910,"journal":{"name":"Libyan Journal of Medicine","volume":"20 1","pages":"2500192"},"PeriodicalIF":1.8000,"publicationDate":"2025-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12054564/pdf/","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Libyan Journal of Medicine","FirstCategoryId":"3","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1080/19932820.2025.2500192","RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"2025/5/4 0:00:00","PubModel":"Epub","JCR":"Q2","JCRName":"MEDICINE, GENERAL & INTERNAL","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
The cornerstone of asthma management is the stepwise approach recommended by both national and international guidelines. In this study, we aim to investigate physicians' attitudes and approaches towards step-down treatment in asthma management in Turkey. In this cross-sectional study, questionnaire-based data were gathered from pulmonologists, immunology and allergy specialists and immunology and allergy fellows in November-December 2024. Of the 225 physicians, the median years of service in their speciality was 5 (min1-max51) years. Nearly 35% of survey participants rarely step down asthma medication (12.9% and 52.4% of participants always and frequently, respectively). The two most selected barriers were 'I am afraid the patient will get worse' (50.9%) and 'patients don't want to' (29.9%). Participants whose primary concern regarding step-down asthma treatment was fear of patient deterioration were found to use step-down approaches less frequently (66.7%, p < 0.001). Working in educational and research hospitals, the fear that the patient may worsen, and infrequent adherence to guideline updates were significantly associated with the rare implementation of step-down treatment in asthma management. Our study identified that the fear of potential disease worsening and infrequent adherence to updated guidelines were significantly associated with the limited implementation of step-down treatment in asthma management.
期刊介绍:
Libyan Journal of Medicine (LJM) is a peer-reviewed, Open Access, international medical journal aiming to promote heath and health education by publishing high-quality medical research in the different disciplines of medicine.
LJM was founded in 2006 by a group of enthusiastic Libyan medical scientists who looked at the contribution of Libyan publications to the international medical literature and saw that a publication outlet was missing. To fill this gap they launched LJM as a tool for transferring current medical knowledge to and from colleagues in developing countries, particularly African countries, as well as internationally.The journal is still led by a group of Libyan physicians inside and outside Libya, but it also enjoys support and recognition from the international medical community.