Background: Anaphylaxis guidelines recommend prescription of more than 1 epinephrine autoinjector (EAI) for patients at risk. A second epinephrine dose is required in 16% to 36% of patients.
Objective: To evaluate real-world use of EAIs and understand the patients'/caregivers' adherence to guidelines.
Methods: We collected survey responses from US patients and caregivers with an EAI prescription in November 2015. The survey covered several domains relevant to anaphylaxis and EAI use.
Results: The survey was completed by 953 respondents (505 patients and 448 caregivers). Most respondents were women (71%). Most of the respondents had previously administered an EAI (75%). The mean age of the respondents was 28 ± 14.0 years. A total of 786 (82%) respondents did not carry 2 EAIs all the time, and the main reason given was to have 1 EAI in another location. Most respondents kept at least 1 EAI at home (84%). The percentages of respondents with more than 1 EAI available at locations surveyed were low (patients: 22% at home, 2% at work; caregivers: 27% at home, 10% at school). During training, most respondents (64%) were instructed to always carry 1 EAI and keep the other in another location. Half of the respondents reported the use of a second epinephrine dose in a previous event. Forty-five percent of the 73 respondents who sought emergency care did so because of the unavailability of a second dose.
Conclusions: Our study suggests poor adherence in patients and caregivers to anaphylaxis guidelines recommending more than 1 EAI available at all times and implies that this can result in adverse outcomes.
Keywords: Allergies; Anaphylaxis; Epinephrine; Epinephrine autoinjector; Health care utilization; Treatment guidelines.
Copyright © 2018 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.