Compliance with an allergen immunotherapy regime.

BACKGROUND

Compliance with an allergy immunotherapy regimen is obviously the difference between a potentially successful or unsuccessful outcome.

OBJECTIVE

The purpose of this study was to assess retrospectively compliance of patients receiving immunotherapy in a private allergy practice.

METHODS

The study evaluated retrospectively patient compliance with prescribed allergy injections for a private practice in Atlanta, Georgia. Patients who ordered allergy extract material for their injection immunotherapy program during an 18-month period served as the index population for this study. For the purposes of this study, noncompliance was defined as stopping the allergy injection program without the approval of the prescribing physician. Part of this investigation was to determine whether there were compliance differences between those who received their allergy injections within the confines of the clinic and those who received their injections at outside physician offices. A 12-month period of review was considered adequate to monitor compliance because of the 12-month expiration date placed on the allergy extracts.

RESULTS

There was a noncompliance rate of 10: 77% for those who received their injections within the clinic. This contrasted with the noncompliance rate in the remote population of 34.82%. The difference between these two groups was statistically significant (P < .01). There were no statistical differences with respect to sex or diagnostic category. Significant differences were found between age groups in those receiving injections within or outside the clinic.

CONCLUSIONS

There is a much higher rate of noncompliance in those who receive their injections in facilities outside the allergist's office. This suggests that to ensure better compliance either individuals should either 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 injections.