Background: Asthma affects approximately 358 million people worldwide.

Objective: To determine the trend in the use of medications used to treat asthma in a group of patients affiliated to the Colombian health system.

Methods: A retrospective study on prescription patterns of medications used to treat asthma in patients over 5 years of age between 2017 and 2019. Sociodemographic variables, medications used and combinations, persistence of use and prescribing physician were considered. Data were obtained from a drug-dispensing database from Colombia.

Results: 10,706 people with a diagnosis of asthma were identified, with predominance in female sex (56.8 %), mean age 32.2 ± 26.1 years. At the start of follow-up, 53.2% of patients aged 5-11 years were receiving monotherapy, mean 1.5 ± 0.6 drugs/patient, especially inhaled corticosteroids (ICS; 55.9%) and short-acting β-agonists (SABA; 55.6%). Moreover, in patients older than 12 years, 53.5% were treated in monotherapy, mean 1.6 ± 0.7 drugs/patient, of which 45.9% were on SABA, and 37.1 % on ICS.Between 63.0% and 83.6% of patients were treated by a general practitioner. The proportion of patients on the ICS/ long-acting β-agonists (LABA) combination grew at 24 months follow-up by 411% and 177%, respectively. 12.5% of patients (n=495) received triple therapy (ICS/LABA+LAMA [long-acting anticholinergics]), particularly with fluticasone/salmeterol + tiotropium.

Conclusions: Patients with a diagnosis of asthma older than 5 years in Colombia are mainly receiving control therapy with ICS, alone or combined with SAMA and, to a lesser extent, with LABA.

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