This guide has been produced as a result of the National Asthma Campaign's (now National Asthma Council) Asthma Adherence Workshop, held in June 1997 and funded by the Commonwealth Department of Health and Aged Care. Compliance, or rather adherence, was seen as an issue in asthma care that had not at that time been effectively addressed, despite the progress made in clinical asthma management and the provision of information to people with asthma.

Participants and speakers at the workshop were invited on the basis of their special interest, experience or expertise in the area of patient adherence to medication regimens, and included clinicians, researchers, educators and behaviouralists. The workshop was designed to present contemporary practice and theory in a manner that would encourage interaction and thoughtful discussion, with the goal of developing practical strategies to improve asthma adherence. A key recommendation was the development of an asthma adherence guide for those involved in asthma management, including doctors, pharmacists and asthma educators.

The planning committee for the Adherence Workshop, together with several of the presenters, subsequently became the reference group for this project. Recent Australian and international literature on adherence was drawn on extensively by the group. The National Asthma Campaign's Asthma Adherence Workshop Report (1997) has also been used in the development of the text.

Asthma Adherence Reference Group members were:

• Prof. Adrian Bauman, Professor of Public Health, Department of Epidemiology, Liverpool Hospital, NSW
• Dr Ron Borland, Deputy Director, Centre for Behavioural Research in Cancer, VIC
• Dr Chris Brown, general practitioner, QLD
• Dr Jill Cockburn, Head, Discipline of Behavioural Science, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, University of Newcastle, NSW
• Dr David Hill, Director, Centre for Behavioural Research in Cancer, VIC
• Assoc. Prof. Cynthia Rand, Associate Professor of Medicine, The Johns Hopkins Asthma and Allergy Centre, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MA, USA
• Dr Colin Robertson, Deputy Director, Department of Respiratory Medicine, Royal Children's Hospital, VIC
• Assoc. Prof. Susan Sawyer, Deputy Director, Centre for Adolescent Health, VIC
• Dr Kay Stewart, Senior Lecturer in Pharmacy Practice, Victorian College of Pharmacy, Monash University, VIC
• Mr Brett Toelle, Research Officer, Institute of Respiratory Medicine, University of Sydney, NSW

We would also like to acknowledge the contribution of Ms Felicity Finlayson and Ms Adrienne James of the Lung Health Promotion Centre at The Alfred Hospital, Melbourne. The Alfred's Asthma Education Profile Questionnaire, and the Behavior Change Protocol, are reproduced with permission.

We are grateful to Emeritus Professor Philip Ley for his encouragement and advice on adherence issues.

Content updated June 2001