CF Treatment Adherence Can Improve Health Outcomes in CF

Coverage from the North American CF Conference

October 29, 2009

While exploring health outcomes at the 23rd annual North American CF Conference, health care professionals noted that adherence to CF treatment regimens is very important.

“We think there’s a strong association with how adherent you are to your treatment regimen and how healthy you are,” said Kristin Riekert, Ph.D., assistant professor in the Department of Pulmonary and Critical Care at The Johns Hopkins University.

The less adherent people with CF are to their treatment regimens, the more likely they are to have a flare up of symptoms, explained Riekert. Frequent flare ups can lead to a decrease in lung function.

In CF, one of the biggest challenges to adherence is how complex the treatment regimen is.

To better understand adherence, Riekert is co-leading a study called I Change Adherence and Raise Expectations, or iCARE. The goal of the study is to build awareness about adherence and provide CF clinicians skills to intervene when patients are non-adherent.

One of the best ways to improve adherence is to simply pay attention to it. Discussions between the CF care team and patients about what does and does not work with their treatment regimen is key.

Hear more from Dr. Kristin Riekert