Does spatial accessibility of pharmacy services predict compliance with long-term control medications?
BACKGROUND
Disadvantaged urban children with asthma are at high risk for undermanagement of their disease and poor compliance with inhaled corticosteroids (ICS).


OBJECTIVE
To determine whether spatial accessibility (SA) of retail pharmacy services is associated with ICS compliance.


METHODS
Caregivers of 137 urban high-morbidity asthmatic children attended a comprehensive intervention to improve asthma care and outcomes. Subsequent ICS compliance was determined at 1, 3, and 6 months. We modeled 18 measures of SA to 339 pharmacies using logistic regression and adjusting for numerous covariates.


RESULTS
No relationships between SA and compliance were found.


CONCLUSIONS
In this group of disadvantaged urban children with severe asthma, compliance with ICS was not significantly associated with SA of retail pharmacy services.
D000305:Adrenal Cortex Hormones / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D001249:Asthma / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000517:prevention & control*; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D006297:Health Services Accessibility / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010349:Patient Compliance / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D010593:Pharmaceutical Services / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D013997:Time Factors
D000305:Adrenal Cortex Hormones