Page 28 - Livre électronique des Rencontres Franco-Tunisiennes de Pneumologie 2019

P3. THE PREVALENCE OF SEVERE UNCONTROLLED ASTHMA IN A TUNISIAN POPULATION

FATMA GUEZGUEZ1,2, INÈS GHANNOUCHI1,2, WAFA BENZARTI3, ICHRAF ANANE1, AMANI
SAYHI1, SOUFIA GOUTA1, SONIA ROUATBI1,2

1: DEPARTMENT OF PHYSIOLOGY AND FUNCTIONAL EXPLORATIONS, UNIVERSITY HOSPITAL OF FARHAT HACHED, SOUSSE,
TUNISIA 2: HEART FAILURE (LR12SP09) RESEARCH LABORATORY, UNIVERSITY HOSPITAL OF FARHAT HACHED, SOUSSE,
TUNISIA 3: DEPARTMENT OF PNEUMOLOGY, UNIVERSITY HOSPITAL OF FARHAT HACHED, SOUSSE, TUNISIA

Introduction
The goals of asthma treatment are to achieve good symptom control and minimal exacerbations.
Some patients, despite being on maximal therapy with managed comorbidities remain
uncontrolled. They constitute cases of severe uncontrolled asthma and they may be eligible for
biologic therapies.

Aim: to determine the prevalence of severe uncontrolled asthma in Tunisia.

Methods
This was a cross sectional study conducted in the department of physiology and Functional
explorations. 102 adult patients with asthma were enrolled. A medical questionnaire was used to
assess for comorbidities, medication (classified from step 1 to 5 according to GINA 2018), adherence
to treatment and symptom control level (according to GINA 2018).

Results
The sample was aged 44.3±13.3 years with 70% of females. The main comorbidities reported were
rhinitis (83.3%), conjunctivitis (42.2%), GERD (34.3%) and obesity (48%). Uncontrolled asthma was
found in 59.8% of the patients (n=61). They were so because they were untreated (9.8%) or difficult
to treat (45.1%) because of poor adherence to treatment (n=35) and unmanaged comorbidities
(n=11). Only five patients of the total sample (4.9%, IC95%[1-9.8]) were “authentic” uncontrolled
severe asthma.

Conclusion
Most of uncontrolled patients are difficult to treat ones. The prevalence of severe uncontrolled
asthma in Tunisia is only 4.9%, IC95% [1-9.8]. Assuming a prevalence of less than 5%, this
subphenotype might be qualified for rare disease. This assumption might facilitate the
reimbursement of novel targeted treatment."

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