Triple therapy of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), consisting of inhaled corticosteroid (ICS), long-acting β2-agonist (LABA) and long-acting muscarinic antagonist (LAMA) has shown benefits in patients with COPD. However, little is known about the use of triple therapy in Chinese patients. This study aims to describe the treatment patterns and the utilization of triple therapy in COPD patients based on real-world data from China. This retrospective study included patients with COPD from the Yinzhou database. Patients aged ≥ 40 years with a diagnosis of COPD were included. Different combinations of ICS, LAMA and LABA prescribed during follow-up were categorized as single, dual, or triple therapies. Descriptive analysis was performed to depict the treatment patterns of each therapy. A total of 7888 patients were prescribed at least one COPD therapy during the follow-up. Among them, 29.1% were prescribed triple therapy (ICS+LABA+LAMA) with a median (IQR) treatment duration of 3.27 (7.17) months. The majority (68.6%) of patients were prescribed dual therapy with ICS+LABA, while 27.3% and 23.3% of patients were prescribed single therapy with ICS or LAMA, respectively. Regarding treatment sequences during follow-up, 30.1% of patients received dual therapy with ICS+LABA, followed by 11.4% receiving only triple therapy and 10.4% receiving single therapy with ICS alone. Our study assessed treatment patterns and triple therapy utilization among patients with COPD in China. The majority of patients were treated with ICS+LABA dual therapy. Triple therapy was also widely used, with most patients transitioning from other treatment modalities.
Chen et al. (Tue,) studied this question.