Most Parents Don’t Fill Their Kids’ Asthma Meds — Study

The majority of parents simply don’t fill their kids’ asthma prescriptions. That’s the take-home point in a study aimed at figuring out whether out-of-pocket costs for medications influenced parents’ willingness to fill prescriptions for their children’s asthma. Analyses from insurance claims for nearly 9,000 U.S. children between 1997 and 2007 showed that an increase in out-of-pocket costs for daily asthma-control drugs was associated with slightly lower medication adherence (41.7% vs. 40.3%) and higher rates of hospitalizations (1.7 hospital visits per 100 kids vs. 2.4 visits) in kids 5- to 18-years old. These are statistically significant differences. . read more.