The role of the pharmacy in the management of bronchial asthma: A literature-based evaluation

Objective: Pharmacists play a relevant role in the real-life management of asthma because they are a first-line referral for patients. In fact, the role of pharmacies has been underlined and evidenced also in guidelines. Nonetheless, the true effect of pharmacy-based management of asthma has been assessed in only a few studies. We review the available literature on asthma management in a territorial pharmacy setting.

Data sources: The literature was searched for the keywords pharmacy, bronchial asthma, control, and management.

Study selections: The available studies were subdivided into observational and interventional and described.

Results: Seven observational studies and 14 interventional trials were found, involving approximately 20,000 individuals. Most of those studies were performed in Europe and Australia. A high proportion of patients had poorly controlled asthma in the observational studies. The active involvement of pharmacists, in the interventional trials, consistently led to an improvement of the quality of life, a better inhalation technique, and a reduction of exacerbations.

Conclusion: The literature analysis confirms the relevance of the role of pharmacists in the real-life management of bronchial asthma and underlines the need for a more specific training for those health care professionals.